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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 






-"BAPTIST SUCCESSION 



HAID-BOOS OF BAPTIST HISTORY. 




By DfBl'^lAY. 

of Lexington, Kentucky, 

AUTHOR OP "TEXT-BOOK ON CAMPBEI/LISM.' 



"Upon this rock I -will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." — Matt. 16: 18. 

11 But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest ; for as concerning this 
sect, we know that every-where it is spoken against." — Acts 28: 22. 



CINCINNATI: 

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR. 



GEO. E. STEVENS & CO., 

3?*i "blisters, Bookseller's, and. Stationers. 
1870. 






Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1870, 

By D. B. RAY, 

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at "Washington. 



STEREOTYPED BY MCKAY & CULLIIff. 



PREFACE. 



The Angel said to Daniel that, in the last days, " Many shall run 
to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased." This prophecy is 
especially being fulfilled as regards church history ; for a number 
of the ripest scholars of Europe and America are devoting their 
energies to this great work, with the prospect of much good as the 
result. It has ever been the policy of Rome to destroy, as far as 
possible, not only the true church itself, but every vestige of its 
history. This fell design has led Romish authors to make the effort to 
blacken the character of the Church of Christ, by accusing its mem- 
bers of almost every crime which Satanic malice could invent. And 
they have so far succeeded in their purpose, as to make the impres- 
sion on the multitude, that there is no church succession independent 
of Rome, and that all other churches came out of the Catholic 
Church ! Baptists have with one voice denied any connection with 
the Romish apostacy, and claimed their origin as a church from 
Jesus Christ and the apostles. If this claim of the Baptists is true, 
they should ever be willing and able to furnish the evidence upon 
which they rest their claims to antiquity. But, owing to the 
scarcity and cost of old ecclesiastical histories and documents, the 
people are deprived of the means of knowing the facts of history 
which ought to be in the reach of every one. It is the design of 
this work to furnish, in a convenient shape, the leading facts of his- 
tory which every Christian should know. I can see no reason why 
any child of God should be indifferent as to the history of the 
" martyrs of Jesus," upon whose blood the Romish harlot was drunk 
for so many ages. I know that the full details of the cruel suffer- 
ings of these witnesses for Christ is preserved alone in the archives of 
heaven, and will there be preserved till that glorious day when 
every hidden thing shall be brought to light. 

Eager historians have ever been ready to rear monuments of fame 
to the memory of heroes and tyrants who have drenched the earth 



iv (Preface. 

in human blood, and have arisen to greatness through treachery 
and crime; and the admiring multitudes are ready to shout the 
praises of these human butchers, that have shrouded nations in 
mourning and distress. But, how few are interested in the history 
• of those men and women of whom the world is not worthy, who 
forsook all for the kingdom of God, and became pilgrims and 
strangers on the earth. They were often clad in sheep-skins and 
goat-skins, and wandered in deserts and mountains ; they sometimes 
lived in caves and dens of the earth, or dragged out their wretched 
lives in filthy prison-dungeons; and, at last, thousands of them sealed 
their testimony at the stake, where they sang and shouted the praises 
of God, amidst the flames which devoured their bodies. Is it pos- 
sible that God's children, who are more highly favored, feel no 
interest in the investigation of the history of the Bride of Jesus 
Christ, whose wanderings in the wilderness may be traced by her 
martyr blood, as seen in the gloomy light of the martyr fires? We 
have a number of valuable histories of the Baptists — such as those 
written by Crosby, Ivimey, Orchard, Benedict, Cramp, and others; 
but still there is a demand for the Hand-Book of Baptist History, 
arranged for convenient reference. This work will be found espe- 
cially valuable to those who do not have access to historic libraries. 
Instead of being compelled to search for years through rare and 
musty volumes, the reader is here furnished with the facts, suitably 
arranged, to meet all ordinary demands. This collection has been 
prepared at great cost and labor, amidst the pressure of other cares 
and duties. The reader is left to judge for himself as to the merits 
of the present volume. It is my earnest desire to point sinners to 
Jesus Christ, as the only name given in heaven, or among men, 
whereby they can be saved. And I also wish to aid the people of 
God, by pointing them to the Church of Jesus Christ, which is the 
" pillar and ground of the truth." 

Praying that the blessings of God may rest upon this effort to 
promote His glory, I dedicate this work to the Churches of Jesus 
Christ. D. B. R 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

1. The Visibility of the Church or Kingdom..... 9 

2. The Nature of the Succession 15 

3. Baptist Peculiarities « 19 

CHAPTEE II. 
THE " MISSIONARY " AND " OLD-SCHOOL " BAPTISTS. 

1. The Regular Baptists and the Anti-Mission Baptists were once 

associated together as One People 22 

2. In the Separation, the "Hard-Shell, " or Anti-Mission Baptists, 

were the Seceding Party, which withdrew from the Regular 
Baptists 24 

3. " From the days of the Apostles to the present time, the true, 

legitimate Baptist Church has ever been a Missionary body ".... 26 

4. The Churches founded by Christ and the Apostles were Missionary 

Churches 33 

5. The Ancient Regular Baptists in favor of Ministerial Education... 37 

CHAPTEE III. 

AMERICAN BAPTISTS. 

1. Roger Williams was never a Member of a true, legitimate Baptist 

Church 42 

2. The Newport, and not the present Providence First Church, the 

oldest Baptist Church in America 51 

3. No present Baptist Church or Minister has Baptism by Succession 

from Roger Williams 58 

4. Baptist Ministers from Europe who aided in planting the Early 

American churches 62 



vi Contents. 



CHAPTEK IV. 
ENGLISH BAPTISTS. 

PAGE. 

1. The English Baptists did not Originate with John Smith 76 

2. The English Baptists are descended from the German Baptists 84 

CHAPTEE V. 

GERMAN BAPTISTS. 

1. The German Baptists did not Originate with the Munster Riot 91 

2. The German Baptists descended from the Ancient Waldenses 99 

CHAPTER VI. 
THE ANCIENT WALDENSES. 

1. The Name Waldenses 107 

2. The Charge of Drs. Miller and Rice against Jones, the Historian, 114 

3. Ancient Waldenses Baptistr— Modern Waldenses Pedohaptists 121 

4. The Origin of the Waldenses 138 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE NOVATIANS. 

/ 

1. The Churches called " Novatian Churches " did not Originate 

with Novatian 154 

2. The Origin of the Novatians 159 

, CHAPTER VIII. 

BAPTIST PECULIARITY FIRST — JESUS THE FOUNDER 
AND HEAD: 

1. Peculiarity First tested by the Bible 171 

2. Peculiarity First identified in Present Baptist Teaching 178 

CHAPTER IX. 

BAPTIST PECULIARITY SECOND— -THE BIBLE AS THE 
RULE OF CONDUCT. 

1. Peculiarity Second tested by the Bible 180 

2. Peculiarity Second identified in Present Baptist Teaching 184 



Contents. vii 



CHAPTEE X. 

BAPTIST PECULIARITY THIRD —ORDER OF THE COM- 
MANDMENTS. 

PAGE. 

1. Peculiarity Third tested by the Bible . 190 

2. Peculiarity Third identified in Present Baptist Teaching 195 



CHAPTEE XI. 

BAPTIST PECULIARITY FOURTH — BURIAL IN BAPTISM 
OF THE DEAD TO SIN. 

1. Baptist Peculiarity Fourth tested by the Bible 199 

2. Peculiarity Fourth identified in Present Baptist Teaching 206 

CHAPTEE XII. 

BAPTIST PECULIARITY FIFTH —EQUALITY IN THE 
KINGDOM. 

1. Baptist Peculiarity Fifth tested by the Bible 209 

2. Peculiarity Fifth identified in Present Baptist Teaching ' 223 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

PECULIARITY SIXTH — RESTRICTED COMMUNION. 

1. Objections to Restricted Communion answered 233 

2. Baptist Peculiarity Sixth — Restricted Communion tested by the 

Bible 239 

3. Concessions to Baptist Views of Communion 250 

4. Peculiarity Sixth — Communion in the Kingdom identified with 

Present Baptist Teaching 262 

CHAPTEE XIV. * 

PECULIARITY SEVENTH — THE TRUE CHURCH PERSE- 
CUTED. 

1. Peculiarity Seventh — the True Church Persecuted — tested by the 

Bible 266 

2. Peculiarity Seventh identified in Modern Baptist History 271 



viii Contents. 



CHAPTER XV. 

PRIMITIVE CHURCHES — FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF 
THE CHURCH TO THE NOVATIAN RUPTURE— A PERIOD 
OF ABOUT TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY YEARS. 

PAGE. 

1. Peculiarities applied to the Primitive Churches 285 

2. Bishop and Elder the same Office 302 

3. Errors which Originated in this Period 304 

CHAPTER XVI. 
THE NOVATIAN PERIOD — ABOUT TWO HUNDRED YEARS. 

1. Peculiarities applied to the Novatians 313 

2. The Great Apostacy ., 329 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE WALDENSEAN PERIOD — TWELVE HUNDRED AND 
SIXTY YEARS. 

1. Prophetic History of the Church during this Period 336 

2. The Peculiarities applied to the Waldenses 347 

3. False Churches which arose during this Period 393 

CHAPTER XVIII. 
MODERN BAPTIST PERIOD. 

1. Peculiarities applied to Modern Baptists 409 

2. Ancient and Modern Mennonites 431 

CHAPTER XIX. 
Conclusion 443 

APPENDIX 451 

ABBREVIATIONS 459 



BAPTIST SUCCESSION. 



CHAPTER I. 

THE KINGDOM. 

1. The Visibility of the Church or Kingdom. 

2. The Nature of the Succession. 

3. Baptist Peculiarities. 

Section I. — The visibility of the church or 

KINGDOM. 

The Visibility of the Kingdom. — "The law and the 

prophets were until John: since that time _ _ _ _ 
ii-i n ax i • it i Lake 16: 16. 

the kingdom of God is preached, and every 

man presseth into it." 

This text of itself is sufficient to establish the visibility 
of the kingdom of God. It is admitted by all parties that 
Jesus Christ has a kingdom on earth. I believe there are 
three theories concerning the government of Christ on 
earth : The first is, that God has two kingdoms on earth ; 
the one a visible organization, and the other the invisible 
reign of grace in the hearts of men. The tendency of this 
view is to the neglect of, and contempt for, the positive or- 
dinances and requirements of Jesus Christ. The individ- 
ual is made to believe that he has been baptized with the 
Holy Spirit, and is a member of the " invisible " church ; 
and he therefore regards the positive laws of the King in 
Zion as only types and shadows, of little or no consequence. 



10 The Kingdom. 



A second theory is, that there is no visible kingdom of 
Christ on earth ; that the real kingdom of God is in the 
hearts of his subjects, and those who embrace this position 
feel themselves at liberty to institute, change, or abolish 
laws and customs. They persuade themselves that God has 
made no laws to govern his kingdom; and hence they 
come to the rescue, and enact laws for the control of the 
people of God. This view has been the mother of the vast 
variety of church organizations in the land. 

But the third theory is, that Jesus Christ established a 
visible church, or kingdom, during his ministry on earth ; 
and that the invisible kingdom is composed of that part 
of the church of the first born, that have entered heaven. 

This last position we adopt. We do not believe that 
Jesus Christ organized an "invisible" church, or king- 
dom, on earth. "We freely admit, however, that there are 
some of God's visible children in Babylon, who are 
commanded to come out of her. For John said : " And 
I heard another voice from heaven, saying, 
Come out of her, my people, that ye be not 
partakers of her sin, and that ye receive not of her 
plagues." 

Were these people of God in Babylon and in the 
kingdom of Christ at the same time? 

The following Scriptures are often urged in opposition 
to the visibility of the kingdom : 

1. "And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when 

the kingdom of God should come, he an- 

" ' swered them and said, The kingdom of God 

cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, 

Lo here ! or, Lo there ! for, behold, the kingdom of God 

is within you." 



The Kingdom Visible. 11 

The translation of this passage is evidently defective. 
For the words, " the kingdom of God is within you" were 
addressed, not to the disciples of Christ, but to the wicked 
Pharisees. It is certain that the kingdom of God was 
not in their murderous hearts. Some translate the Greek 
preposition entos, in this passage, among ; and this would 
make the Saviour say, "the kingdom of God is among 
you" or, in your midst. That is, the members of the 
kingdom were then in the presence of, and among, the 
Jews. 

It came not with observation; that is, it was not estab- 
lished with carnal weapons, amidst the confusion of battles 
and victories over conquered armies. 

2. "For the kingdom of God, is not meat and drink; 
but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the 
Holy Ghost." Emn - 1 : U - 

How this passage can be tortured to prove the invisi- 
bility of the kingdom on earth, I am unable to see. The 
apostle, no doubt, was talking in this chapter of the meats 
offered in sacrifice to idols ; and he thought it best not to 
eat such meat, lest the weak brother be made to offend. 
Does any one who holds the visibility of the kingdom, 
teach that the kingdom consists in meat and drink? 
Verily not. But what does the apostle mean when he 
says the kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy 
in the Holy Ghost f Does he teach the invisibility of 
the kingdom? No: For the very first element of the 
kingdom, named by the apostle, is righteousness, which 
certainly includes visible obedience to the ordinances of 
the kingdom. The baptism of Jesus was a part of the 
righteousness of the kingdom ; for he said, 
" thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness" 



12 The Kingdom. 



3. "For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, 
whether we be Jews or Greeks, whether we 
be bond or free; and have been all made to 
drink into one Spirit." 

This passage is relied on by some to support the notion 
that persons are now baptized by the Holy Spirit into 
the invisible church ! They talk very confidently of their 
baptism by the Holy Spirit, and membership in the Church 
of Christ, independent of all church organizations. 

Such persons have certainly forgotten that the real 
baptism of the Holy Spirit always endowed the possessor 
with the gift of tongues or inspiration. And they have 
overlooked the fact, that regeneration is one thing, and 
baptism of the Holy Spirit quite another. But to the 
passage : " For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one 
body," etc. 

A better rendering of this passage would be, "In one 
spirit are we all baptized into one body." In is the pri- 
mary meaning of the Greek preposition en — rendered, in 
our version, by. The meaning of the passage is, in one 
Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, we have all been baptized into 
one body — i. e., the visible kingdom or Church of Christ. 

It is certain that Holy Spirit baptism is not referred to 
in this passage. If so, we would have the Holy Spirit 
both the administrator and element. It should be remem- 
bered, that the Scriptures nowhere represent the Holy 
Spirit as the administrator of baptism of any kind. Jesus 
Christ was the only administrator of the baptism of the 
Holy Spirit. 

We now proceed to introduce the Scriptures which teach 
the visibility of the kingdom or Church of Jesus Christ. 
It is freely admitted that the term church is usually 



The Kingdom Visible. 13 



'£> 



applied in the New Testament to local bodies; as, the 
Church at Jerusalem, the Church at Antioch, the Church 
at Rome, etc. 

But I am satisfied that the term church, or ecclesia, is 
also used by inspiration in the sense of kingdom. And 
such an example we have in Matt, xvi: 18; where the 
Savior said: "Upon this rock I will build 
my church, and the gates of hell shall not 
prevail against it." 

I take this declaration of the Messiah as my first proof 
of the visibility of the church or kingdom. For if the 
Savior alluded to the reign of grace in the heart when he 
said, " I will build my church," this would contradict 
facts ; for the reign of grace had already been built in the 
hearts of men from the time of Abel. Therefore, as that 
something which men are pleased to call the invisible 
kingdom, had been set up about four thousand years in 
the past, it is certain that Jesus Christ did not allude to 
the reign of grace in the heart when he said, " I will 
build my church." And as the Scriptures teach that 
none but men and women, believers, are eligible to church 
membership, therefore it would be as appropriate to 
speak of invisible men and women on earth as to speak 
of an invisible church on earth composed of men and 
women ! 

2. " And from the days of John the Baptist until now, 
the kingdom of heaven suffer eth violence, and 
the violent take it by force" 

Will it be said that violent men take the invisible king- 
dom by force ? 

This is too absurd. But how could an invisible king- 
dom suffer violence ? The kingdom of Christ, as a visi- 



14 The Kingdom. 



ble body, has suffered violence from the days of John the 
Baptist even until now. 

3. " Then shall the kingdom of heaven be liken unto 
M ok V iq ten virgins which took their lamps and went 

# forth to meet the bridegroom. And five of 
them were wise and five were foolish," etc. 

It is generally conceded that the foolish virgins repre- 
sent false professors in the kingdom. But if it refers to 
the invisible kingdom of grace in the heart, then the doc- 
trine of final apostacy is true. But the very fact that 
false professors, foolish virgins, are in the kingdom, shows 
that the kingdom must be a visible organization. 

4. The Savior said, at the institution of the supper, " I 

appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father 
' hath appointed unto me ; That ye may eat 
and drink at my table in my kingdom," etc. 

Here the Savior has fixed the Lord's table in the 
kingdom. Did he place the visible Communion in an 
invisible kingdom ? The very fact that he instituted the 
supper, a visible ordinance, in the kingdom, is positive 
proof that that kingdom is visible. Jesus Christ has but 
one kingdom on earth, and that is a visible organization, 
especially to those who have been born again. It has visi- 
ble subjects: those who have exercised repentance and 
faith, and have been buried with Christ in baptism, and 
are walking in the ordinances of the Lord ; & house. It 
has visible laws, which are contained in the Word of 
God. And it has visible ordinances : baptism and the 
Lord's Supper. 

Therefore, we conclude that the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ is a visible organization. Once more, it is certain 
that Jesus Christ set up a visible kingdom, from the fol- 



Nature of the Succession. 15 

lowing prediction of Daniel : " And in the days of these 
kings shall the God of heaven set up a king- 
dom, which shall never be destroyed, and the 
kingdom shall not be left to other people; but it shall 
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it 
shall stand forever." The reign of grace had been up in 
the hearts of men long before this prophecy was uttered ; 
but the kingdom to be set up was still future ; therefore, 
this prediction could not refer to the reign of grace in 
the hearts of men. It is admitted that the term church 
is applied in the Scriptures to denote all the saints in 
heaven and on earth ; and that many of the children of 
God on earth do not belong to his true church ; and it 
may be that the term kingdom is used in the same way. 
But, I contend that when the term kingdom is used, in the 
New Testament, with reference to this earth alone, it 
always refers to what is known as the visible kingdom. 



Section II. — The natuke of the succession. 

All well-informed Baptists are agreed in the belief 
that we, as a people, have continued from the time of 
Christ until the present. In other words, they hold and 
teach the perpetuity of the Church of Christ. They 
believe that the Baptist succession exists ; that there has 
been no period of time since the death of Christ when 
Baptists have not existed. But Baptists do not claim 
" apostolic succession" because they admit that the apos- 
tolic office expired with the death of John the beloved. 
There was no more necessity for the apostolic office when 
Christianity was fully established and the canon of reve- 
lation completed. Neither do we claim Popish succes- 



16 The Kingdom. 



sion, for this is only the succession of Antichrist. But 
while some agree* that the Baptist succession does exist, 
or that a succession of Baptists has continued from the 
time of Christ to the present, yet they, at the same time, 
deny that the succession can be proved. This is wholly 
inconsistent; for no one has the right to believe that 
which can not be proved. There can be no intelligent 
faith without evidence. If we have no evidence to prove 
a succession, it is out of the question to affirm that we be- 
lieve in the existence of such succession. It appears that 
the taunts of our opponents have caused some of us al- 
most to surrender our birthright. They tell us that this 
claim to succession is a " Popish principle," a "mark of 
the Beast," etc. But shall we reject a Bible doctrine be- 
cause it has been perverted by the Church of Rome 4 ? 
Shall we reject the divinity of Christ because this is held 
by the Church of Rome? Shall we reject the ordinances 
of baptism and the Lord's Supper because these have been 
perverted by the Church of Rome ? Or shall we give up 
our church organization because the Church of Rome, pro- 
fessing to be the Church of Christ, has become the most 
cruel ecclesiastical despotism which has ever disgraced 
the name of Christianity? Shall we reject all currency 
because of the counterfeit? And shall we surrender the 
perpetuity or succession of the " everlasting kingdom " of 
Jesus Christ because the Catholics have inaugurated the 
Popish succession of Antichrist? 

But again, we are told that there is no importance 
whatever attached to the doctrine of succession ; that it 
makes no difference whether we are in the succession or 
not, if we hold the Bible doctrine at the present time! 
But no man can hold the Bible doctrine of church organ- 



Nature of the Succession. 17 

ization who denies the succession. No man can be in the 
church or kingdom of Jesus Christ who is not in that 
kingdom which has the succession from the apostolic age. 
Is it not important to know that the words of Jesus 
Christ have been verified which are recorded in Matt, 
xvi: 18: "Upon this rock I will build my church, and 
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it " ? Is it not 
important to know that the Church of Christ, which is the 
"pillar and ground of the truth," has been "kept by the 
power of God" as the beacon-light of the world through 
the dark ages, while the masses of mankind were won- 
dering after the Beast? Is it not important to know that 
the more than fifty millions of martyred saints, whose 
blood has been poured forth like rivers, or whose bones 
have bleached upon the mountains and vales of Europe, 
and whose ashes have been scattered to the four winds of 
heaven, were members of the Church of Christ? Or shall 
we say, it makes no difference with us whether they fell as 
martyrs of Jesus Christ or died as members of Antichrist? 
It is no new doctrine among Baptists to claim the suc- 
cession of the churches of Jesus Christ. The author of 
the Religious Encyclopedia says : " They [Baptists] think 

that the Christian church, properly so _, _ _ 

„ , ;., , . r . ,, Bel 22Vicyc.,p.l88. 

called, was not visibly organized m the 

family of Abraham nor in the wilderness of Sinai, but 
by the ministry of Christ himself and of his apos- 
tles. * * * * All this time there were Baptist churches. 
* * * * A succession of the Novatians, or the true 
church, has continued down to the Reformation." 

Joseph Belcher says : " It will be seen that the Bap- 
tists claim the high antiquity of the com- Bd Dmom ^ in 
mencement of the Christian church. They E. & A. y p. 53. 



18 The Kingdom. 



can trace a succession of those who have believed the 
same doctrine and administered the same ordinances 
directly up to the apostolic age." 

Mr. Benedict says: "The more I study the subject, the 

stronger are my convictions, that if all the 

en. is . ap ., f ac ^ g j n ^ cage cou \fi k e disclosed, a very 

good succession could be made out." 
Dr. Howell says : " I assert that from the days of the 
apostles to the present time the true, legit- 
w . ' imate Baptist Church has ever been a 

missionary body" 
John L. Waller says : " Here we rest our cause ; the 
case is made out. The doctrine of re- 
apissno ro- f orm j n g ^ e p a p a l Church is unwar- 
testants, pp. 40-41. to r 

ranted by Scripture and unsupported 

by history. 

The Church of Christ was persecuted, but never over- 
thrown ; cast down, but not destroyed. It was built upon 
a rock, against which neither the powers of darkness nor 
the seductions of Satan, transformed into an angel of light, 
could prevail. Poor, persecuted, obscure, and despised, 
still the true friends of the Redeemer maintained the 
great truths of our holy religion, unterrified by opposi- 
tion and unseduced by corruption. And the honor of be- 
ing the witnesses for the truth and the word of God, when 
the civilized nations of the earth had bowed in blind and 
servile obedience to the authority of the Roman Pontiff, 
in sustaining in undiminished radiance and splendor the 
altar-fires of our holy religion during the long and drearv 
darkness of the world's midnight, belongs to the Bap- 
tists. This is confessed by their enemies; and thus in 
them is fulfilled the predictions of the prophets, and illus- 



(Baptist (Peculiarities. 19 

trated that promise of the Savior, 'that the gates of hell 
should not prevail against his church/ n 

• The succession was also maintained by the Baptist mar- 
tyrs of past ages. One important object in pointing out 
our denominational history is to stimulate the zeal of mod- 
ern Baptists by the heroic examples of our ancient breth- 
ren and sisters, who sealed their testimony with their 
blood, by showing that they suffered the loss of all things 
earthly for the same principles which distinguish us as a 
denomination. In other words, our principles have been 
handed down to us at the cost of the lives of millions of 
our brethren and sisters who loved the Church of Christ 
more than life itself. Like Abel, being dead, they yet 
speak to us of the glorious things concerning the king- 
dom of Christ, and still continue to bear witness against 
every form of Antichrist. 



Section III. — Baptist peculiaeities. 

Before following up our line of succession it becomes 
necessary to lay down some characteristic features which 
have distinguished Baptists from all others through the 
past ages. 

It is said by Solomon that "Wisdom hath built her 
house ; she hath hewn out her seven pillars ; and I will 
here present seven pillars or peculiarities which distin- 
guish Baptists from all others. 

1. The Baptists, as a church or kingdom, recognize Jesus 
Christ alone as their founder and head. 

2. The Baptists regard the Bible alone as their rule of 
faith and practice. 

3. The Baptists perpetuate the Bible order of the com- 



20 The Kingdom. 



mandments ; they teach repentance, faith, baptism, and the 
Lord's Supper. 

4. Baptists immerse, or bury with Christ in baptism, 
only those who prof ess to be dead to, or freed from, sin. 

5. Baptists recognize equal rights or privileges in the 
execution of the laws of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

6. Baptists observe the Lord's Supper at his table in his 
kingdom. 

7. Baptists have never persecuted others ; but have them- 
selves always been peculiarly persecuted and every-where 
spoken against. 

There is no denomination in all Christendom, except 
the Baptists, which holds any one of these seven peculiar- 
ities. They are, therefore, Baptist peculiarities. All 
Christians who hold and practice these principles may be 
regarded as belonging to the Baptist family, whether they 
are called Missionary, Old School, or Seventh-day Bap- 
tists. We are not contending for the succession of the 
name " Baptist," but for the perpetuity of the Church of 
Christ, which is now called " The Baptist Church." Bap- 
tists have never been sticklers about their name. They 
have been called by a multitude of names by their ene- 
mies. Even the name Baptist was not assumed by them. 
On this point Joseph Belcher remarks : " The name of 

, _ k A Baptist originated, not with the party 

so-called, but with their opponents. 
Formerly they were called Anabaptists, or jRe-baptizers, 
which they rejected as involving what they deemed a mis- 
representation ; because, in their view, none are baptized 
but the parties mentioned in the Scriptural law relating 
to the subject, and to whom it is administered in the only 
prescribed mode." But as the name Baptist is not a mis- 



(Baptist (Peculiarities. 21 

representation, we raise no objection to it. The first ad- 
ministrator of baptism was called the Baptist by inspira- 
tion ; and as Baptist churches administer the same ordi- 
nance through their ministers, therefore it is not unscrip- 
tural to call them Baptist churches. 

The Baptist denomination of America numbers over a 
million members, and is the most influential and aggress- 
ive church on the continent. Our enemies are as much 
divided in their testimony in regard to our origin as were 
the witnesses who testified against Jesus. Some say that 
we sprang from the " Hard-Shell " or Anti-Mission Bap- 
tists ; others, that we originated with Roger Williams, or 
the Munster riot ; while all are agreed in saying, " Away 
with them." 



22 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 
CHAPTER II. 

THE " MISSIONARY " AND "OLD SCHOOL" BAPTISTS. 

1. The Regular Baptists, who are also called "Mission- 

ary" or "United" Baptists, and the Anti-Mission 
Baptists, were associated together as One People. 

2. In the separation, the Hard-Shell, or Anti-Mission 

Baptists, were the seceding party, which with- 
drew from the Regular Baptists. 

3. "From the Days of the Apostles to the Present 

Time, the True, Legitimate Baptist Church has ever 
been a Missionary Body." 

4. The Churches founded by Christ and the Apostles 

were Missionary Churches. 

5. The Ancient Regular Baptists were in fayor of Min- 

isterial Education. 

Section 1. — The begulab baptists and the anti- 
mission BAPTISTS WEBE ONCE ASSOCIATED TO- 
GETHEB AS ONE PEOPLE. 

It is a fact worthy of note, that no well informed his- 
torian has ever attempted to locate the time, place, and 
manner of the origin of the Baptist denomination this 
side of Christ and the apostles. But all historians can 
tell the year, the country, and the manner of the rise of 
all other denominations. 

They can name the several founders of these sects, but 
they can not tell the origin of the Baptists. They are by 
them as the Pharisees were by John's baptism, " they can 
not tell." But of late some of less information, or candor, 
contend that the " Missionary Baptists " broke off' from 



Once One (People. 23 

the "Old School/' or " Hard-Shell" Baptists, about thirty 
or forty years ago. And the Anti-Mission brethren even 
call the missionaries the "New School Baptists." And 
some even tell us that they can remember very well when 
the "Missionaries" started! Now, all that is necessary 
in order to settle this question of the priority of the Mis- 
sionary or Anti-Missionary parties among Baptists, is to 
appeal to historic facts and documents. 

It may surprise some when they are informed, that no 
party among Baptists were ever called "Old School" 
until after the separation, about the year 1832, when the 
Anti-Mission brethren assumed the name — " Old School 
Baptists." 

The Regular Baptists and the Anti-Mission Baptists 
were once together as one people; and, therefore, their 
history up to the separation was the same. The opposi- 
tion of our Anti-Mission brethren to the mission work, 
and kindred objects, is a new feature among Baptists. 
There are some of the so-called " Old Baptists," who have 
lapsed into Two-seedism and Non-resurrectionism ; and 
have thereby denied the faith; but there are others of 
them who still possess, in their church organization, the 
peculiar features of true Baptists. 

It is, therefore, evident that such of the Hard-Shell 
churches as have not denied the peculiarities of the de- 
nomination, are still to be regarded as a part of the great 
Baptist family. Though it is equally evident that the 
most of them have impaired their usefulness by speculat- 
ing on the decrees and purposes of God to the neglect of 
faithful preaching to sinners. There is now a growing 
disposition on the part of many of these good brethren, to 
recede from some extremes in their manner of preaching, 



24 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

and co-operate with us again in the spread of the Gospel. 
And we fondly hope that the day is not distant, when all 
prejudice of each party will be buried, and all true Bap- 
tists will stand together in the army of our Master, as in 
times past. But in following up the Baptist. succession, 
justice requires the correction of those false impressions 
which locate the origin of the " Missionary " Baptists with 
those who call themselves " Old Baptists." 



Section II. — In the sepaeation, the "hard shell" 
OR ANTI-MISSION baptists were the seceding 
PARTY, WHICH WITHDREW FROM THE REGULAR 
BAPTISTS. 

This secession, upon the part of our Anti-Mission 

brethren, occurred at different times in different parts of 

the country. In Virginia, the separation took place in the 

year, 1832. Elder S. Trott, an "Old School Baptist" of 

distinction, says of the separation : " This brought brethren, 

churches and associations that had been 
Eel. Denom. in U. . i , i -, j <? i 

9 _, r t> 07 groaning under ine burdens 01 human 

inventions and impositions in religion, 
to separate themselves, some sooner, and some later, from 
the whole mass of the popular religion and religionists, 
and to take a stand as a distinct people, upon the Old 
Baptist standard. The holding of the Scriptures as the 
only and a perfect rule of faith and practice, and Christ as 
the Foundation, the Head, and the Life of the Church, 
the only source and medium of Salvation. This separa- 
tion occasioned the splitting of several associations, and 
many churches. We took, as a distinguishing appellation, 
the name, ( Old School Baptists/ M Here is the candid 



Hard-Shells Secede. 25 

confession of a leading Anti-Mission Baptist, that the 
brethren now claiming to be " Old School " or " Primitive n 
Baptists, separated themselves from the body of the de- 
nomination, and, took a stand "as a distinct people"; and 
at that time, about 1832, took the appellation or name, 
"Old School Baptists." Therefore, according to Elder 
Trott, there was no body of Baptists in the world calling 
themselves "Old School," prior to the year 1832. 

In Tennessee the separation occurred later. Dr. John 
M. Watson says : " After our painful separation from the 
Missionaries in 1836, a number of churches, 

in the bounds of the Old Concord Asso- „ " ap ' ^ 9 

p. 36. 

ciation, met together and formed the Stone 
River Association. We had then, as was generally sup- 
posed, a strong and happy union ; but, alas ! there was an 
element of heresy incorporated in that body as bad, if 
not worse, than that from which we had just withdrawn." 
In the above, Dr. Watson admits that the " Old Baptists " 
separated or withdrew from the " Missionaries." It is ad- 
mitted that, in some cases, the Anti-Mission brethren had 
the majority in churches, and even in some associations; 
but as a body they were largely in the minority — only 
a fraction — when the separation occurred. Elder Jeter 
says of these Baptists: "The class of 

Baptists described in the above extract ( am ^. e ^ sm f" 
r , examined, p. 33. 

were called, in some places, Old School, 
and in others, from the name of the place at which they 
held their seceding convention — c Black Rock' Baptists. 
They separated themselves from the Regular Baptists 
about the time of the rise of Mr. Campbell's Reforma- 
tion." And Elder Bebe, of New York, the Anti-Mission 
editor, admits, in substance, the truth of the above posi- 



26 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

tion, that the " Old School " Baptists seceded or withdrew 
from the " Missionary " Baptists. Other authorities might 
be adduced in confirmation of the same. It has already 
been fully shown, that in the separation the Anti-Mission 
Baptists were the seceding party. 



Section III. — "From the days of the apostles to 

, -r, T -r „ THE PRESENT TIME, THE TRUE, 

foTtt*° V W f ™™^™ BAPTIBT CHUBCH 
HAS EVER BEEN A MISSIONARY 
BODY." 

This declaration of Dr. Howell is fully sustained by 
historic facts. The opposition among Baptists to the 
mission work, is of recent date. But our Anti-Mission 
brethren tell us that they are not opposed to Bible mis- 
sions, but only to the modern missionary system. Actions 
speak louder than words. If the modern Baptists, who 
claim to be the " Old School " or " Primitive " Baptists, 
have ever sent out a missionary, either to the home or for- 
eign field, I have not been informed of the fact. What 
" Hard-Shell" church has ever employed a missionary, 
upon the Bible or any other plan ? They are emphatic- 
ally Anti-Mission Baptists. 

But were the ancient Baptists, up to the time of the 

separation, Missionary or Anti-Missionary f In his Letters 

to Dr. Watson, Dr. Howell says : " But it is particularly 

to the fact, that the Philadelphia Asso- 

L ers r. a- c ' a ^ on f rom our earliest account of it, 

son, p. 9. . . , 

was a missionary body, that 1 wish to call 

your attention. To place this beyond dispute, I shall 

quote a few items from the official records of that body. 



Ancient (Baptist Missionaries. 27 

But first, if you please, turn to Benedict's History of the 
Baptists, vol. II, p. 99, etc.; and you will see that in 
1753 — that is, eighty-four years ago — the Philadelphia As- 
sociation sent Elder John Gano as a missionary to the 
churches in North Carolina, which were soon after formed 
into the Kehukee Association. The next year, 1754, the 
association sent two other missionaries to assist him — 
Elders Benjamin Miller and Peter P. Yanhorn — by the 
instrumentality of whose united labors these churches, pre- 
viously deranged, and nearly what Campbellites now are, 
were reclaimed and set in order, and many sinners were 
converted. Yes, my brother, even the Kehukee Associ- 
ation, now distinguished for its bitterness and proscription 
of missionaries, was collected by missionary labor." In 
this quotation it is shown, that the largest and most influ- 
ential association in America, the Philadelphia, was a 
missionary body, and that the Kehukee Association was 
formed, as the fruits of the labors of her missionaries — 
eighty years prior to the Hard-Shell separation. 

"We are informed by Benedict, the historian, in his 
chapter on Yirginia, that the first Baptist 

church in that State was organized by ,., *T* enr 

^ ,. . . , M , 6 ^, p. 642. 

Robert .Nordm, a missionary, who sailed 

from England in 1714. His brother missionary, Thomas 
White, who sailed with him, died before they reached 
America ; but Elder Nor din was joined, a few years after 
his arrival, by two other missionary preachers — Casper 
Mintz and Richard Jones — from England, who aided in 
planting the first Baptist churches in Yirginia and North 
Carolina. These Baptists were so filled with the mission- 
ary spirit that a few families, which moved to North Car- 
olina, " in ten years became sixteen churches." Thus, in 



28 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

examining the history of the old Baptists of America, 
more than one hundred years before the Hard-Shell sep- 
aration, we find that these old Baptists were missionary 
Baptists. 

Again : Dr. Howell, in his Letters to Dr. Watson, has 
furnished us with the following valuable account of the 
missionary work of the old Baptists, not " Hard-Shells/' 
of the old Charleston Association : " The Charleston 

Association, honored for its antiquity, 
Letters to Dr. Wat- • , \ . , 1V -, . ,i i 

10 -. P ie ty, intelligence, and orthodoxy, was 

formed the 21st day of October, 1751. 
In 1755, four years after its constitution, and eighty-two 
years ago, there is this record — [Furman's History of 
the Charleston Association, Charleston edition of 1811, 
pp. 10, 11, etc.] : ' The Association, taking into consid- 
eration the destitute condition of many places in the inte- 
rior settlements of this and the neighboring States (then 
provinces), recommended to the churches to make contri- 
butions for the support of a missionary to itinerate in 
those parts. Mr. Hart was authorized and requested, 
provided a sufficient sum should be raised, to procure, if 
possible, a suitable person for the purpose. With this 
view he visited Pennsylvania and New Jersey in the fol- 
lowing year, and prevailed with Rev. John Gano to un- 
dertake the service, who attended the annual meeting, and 
was cordially received. The association requested Mr. 
Gano to visit the Yadkin first, and afterward to bestow 
his labors wherever Providence should appear to direct. 
He devoted himself to the work. It afforded ample scope 
for his distinguished piety, eloquence and fortitude ; and 
his ministrations were crowned with remarkable success. 
Many embraced and professed the Gospel. The following 



Ancient (Baptist Missionaries, 29 

year he received from the association a letter of thanks 
for his faithfulness and industry in the mission/ " Thus 
we see, that the old Baptists of the old Charleston Associ- 
ation were Missionary Baptists. And it will be abund- 
antly proved that the Anti-Mission brethren are the 
"New School" Baptists. We again call the attention 
of the reader to the doings of the Philadelphia Associa- 
tion, which is the oldest and most influential Association 
in America. This association was organized in 1707, one 
hundred and sixty-three years ago, and has continued to 
the present time. The minutes of this association for one 
hundred years are preserved in book-form. And in the 
minute of 1766 we have the following record : " After 

prayer, it was moved and agreed : that 

... , j? xi j r xl Phil. Bapt. Asso. 

it is most necessary tor the good ot tne ^ * 

Baptists' interest, that the association 
have at their disposal, every year, a sum of money. Ac- 
cordingly, it w^as further agreed : that the churches, hence- 
forth, do make a collection every quarter, and send the 
same yearly to the association, to be by them deposited 
in the hands of trustees ; the interest whereof only to be 
by them laid out every year in support of ministers trav- 
eling on the errand of the churches, or otherwise, as the 
necessities of said churches shall require." And, also, in 
the year 1794, we have the following action of this asso- 
ciation : " In consequence of information communicated 
to the association by Brother William 
Rogers, it is desired that all donations for ^ag ^ ' 
the propagation of the Gospel among the 
Hindoos in the East Indies, be forwarded to him. * And 
in the next year we have the following : " Agreed, that 
the churches be advised to make collections for the 



30 Missionary and Old School (Baptists, 

Phil. Bapt. Asso. missionaries to the East Indies, and for- 
P' * ward the same to Dr. Rogers." 

The character of this body is set forth in the language 
of H. G. Jones, the editor of these minutes, as follows: 
" The Philadelphia Association, from the first, has engaged 
earnestly in efforts for the proper education 
u . ap . sso. o £ .^ g m i n i s t ers an( j the spread of the Gos- 
pel in the world. Rhode Island College, 
now Brown University, received its patronage and con- 
tributions from its origin, as the subsequent minutes show. 
It will be seen also, that, from the first, it has been an 
effective missionary body. Hundreds of churches have 
been gathered by the able and self-denying men, sent out 
at its expense to regions where no religious privileges had 
before been enjoyed. The aborigines were not overlooked 
in this labor of love. Among other efforts, the Rev. David 
Jones, before the American Revolution, made a missionary 
excursion, at his own expense, to the Indians of what was 
then the 'Far West\" 

From the foregoing reliable documents, and others which 
might be introduced, it is fully settled that the American 
Baptists, from the very first down to the Hard-Shell sep- 
aration, were missionaries. And, instead of the Anti- 
Mission brethren being entitled to the appellation, "Old 
Baptists," by way of distinction, they are "a new f angled 
set of Baptists, never heard of until within 
8 the present century." bo it is altogether 

a misrepresentation, to call the Anti-Mis- 
sion brethren Old Baptists. It not only does injustice to 
the Regular Baptists of America, but it also tends to con- 
firm the Anti-Mission brethren in their opposition to the 
spread of the Gospel, through missionary labor. 



Ancient (Baptist Missionaries. 31 

In regard to the names assumed by the Anti-Mission 

brethren, Mr. Benedict says : " Old School and Primitive 

Baptists are appellations so entirely out of place, that I 

can not, even as a matter of courtesy, use them without 

adding, so-called, or some such expression. 

T i i r* ,i . . His. BapL, Ben., 

1 have seen so much ol the missionary 935 

spirit among the old Anabaptists, Wal- 

denses, and other ancient sects ; so vigorous and perpetual 

were the efforts of those Christians, whom we claim as 

Baptists, in the early, middle, and later ages, to spread 

the Gospel in all parts of the world, among all nations and 

languages where they could gain access, that it is plain 

that those who merely preach up predestination, and do 

nothing, have no claim to be called by their name." 

But were our denominational ancestors of the Old World 

Anti-Mission Baptists? No. The Old English Baptists 

were thorough missionaries. Mr. Benedict describes their 

General Association as follows: "The year 1689 was a 

distinguished epoch in the history of the 

English Baptists, on account of the Gen- ' ' ^ "' ' 

eral Assembly, which then convened in 

London and published a confession of faith, which was 

long a standard work among them. This assembly was 

composed of delegates from upward of a hundred [one 

hundred and seven] congregations, from different parts of 

England and Wales. They met Sept. 3d, and continued 

in session nine days; a narrative of their proceeding was 

published soon after." One item of business transacted 

in this body is recorded thus : " At this Convention the 

denomination, among other things, resolved 

, . n j n • • His. Bapt.. Ben.. 

to raise a iund tor missionary purposes, ~~ r / 1 

and to assist feeble churches; also for the 



32 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

purpose of ministerial education. — Rippon's Register for 
1796." This was an association of Particular Baptists, 
which met one hundred and forty-three years before the 
Hard-Shell withdrawal. And they raised funds for mis- 
sionary purposes and ministerial education ; therefore, they 
were not Anti-Mission Baptists. So, these Old English 
and Welsh Baptists were " Missionary " Baptists. But, 
again, all admit that the Old Welsh Baptists were as true 
to the cause of Christ as any others. Were they Anti- 
Mission Baptists? No. For several centuries the WelslT 
Baptists had been prevented by cruel persecutions from 
meeting in large bodies or associations, and carrying out 
their plans of united efforts in the mission work ; but as 
soon as an opportunity was offered, they met again in an 
associational capacity. Davis, in his History, gives the 
following account of the association which met at Aber- 
gavenny in 1653, one hundred and seventy-nine years be- 
fore the Hard-Shell secession : " In the association held 
at Swansea, 1654, the Church at Llantri- 

wS f d 7 y °L saint proposed to assist the Church at Ab- 
Welsh Bapt.j p.85. r r 

ergavenny, now Llanwenarth, to support 

their minister; which also they did. From the messen- 
gers of Llantrisaint, also, the proposal to revive the ancient 
order of things, came the preceding year; that is, to en- 
courage and support the missionary cause. Let our breth- 
ren in tlie New World look and stare at this, especially 
f our Anti-Missionary friends! Be it known unto them, 
that in the year 1653, in the Welsh Association held at 
Abergavenny, county of Monmouth, South Wales, collec- 
tions were made, when the Welsh Church subscribed to 
raise a fund for missionary purposes. Their plan was, for 
the messengers of every church to mention a certain sum, 



Apostolic Churches Missionary. 33 

and bind themselves to bring that sum with them to the 
next association. For instance, Swansea, £5; Llantri- 
saint, £2 10s.; Carmarthen, £2 10s.* No one was com- 
pelled to give anything; neither was ajiy messenger ever 
blamed for making such arrangements, but was cheerfully 
assisted by his brethren to fulfill them." 

We have not only found that the early American Bap- 
tists were missionaries, but the English and Welsh Bap- 
tists, from whom they sprang, were missionaries also. 

The ancient order of things with them was to encourage 
and support the missionary cause. We may consider it a 
point established, that the old English and Welsh Bap- 
tists were missionaries. But where did the missionary 
system originate ? Mr. Benedict says : " The further 
down I go into the regions of antiquity, 
the more fully is the missionary character ^ko^ ' m ' i 
of all whom we denominate our senti- 
mental brethren, developed." It would be a work of 
supererogation to introduce further historic evidence to 
prove, that from the days of the apostles to the "present time, 
the true, legitimate Baptist Church has ever been a mis- 
sionary body. 

It is to be hoped that no one professing intelligence will, 
in the future, so far betray his ignorance, or malice, as to 
affirm that the " Missionary " Baptists originated with the 
" Old School" Baptists, between thirty and forty years ago. 



Section IV. — The churches founded by christ 

AND THE APOSTLES WERE MISSIONARY CHURCHES. 

Jesus Christ, the Head and Lawgiver, was the Sent or 
Missionary of the Father, on a mission of mercy to a lost 



34 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

world. The Holy Spirit is the Missionary of the Father 
and the Son, sent to comfort the disciples and to reprove 
sinners, etc. *~~ 

The twelve apostles were missionaries, sent by Jesus 
Christ to publish salvation to sinners. Their missionary 
field was at first limited to the land of Judea, but after 
the enlargement of the commission, the field is the world. 
The commission was not given to the disciples in their 
apostolic character. If this were the case, the authority 
of the commission ceased with the apostolic office. Neither 
was it given to them in their ministerial character only; 
for, if this were the case, all ordinations by church author- 
ity would be mere assumption ; and the ministry would 
have no necessary connection with, or dependence on, the 
churches. But the commission was given to them in their 
church capacity ; and, consequently, it remains with the 
churches to this day. While the Savior was with his dis- 
ciples, in person, he retained in his own hands all author- 
ity in his kingdom. But, before his ascension to the 
Father, he clothed his church with the executive authority 
in his kingdom. So that, not even an inspired apostle, or 
all of them together, ever attempted to perform a church 
act, except as ministers or servants of the churches. The 
apostles did not presume to appoint a successor to fill the 
vacancy occasioned by the fall of Judas, but this was done 
by the church, composed of men and women. But, did 
this Jerusalem church, established by Christ himself, send 
out missionaries ? Yes ; for it is said in Acts : " Then 
tidings of these things came unto the ears of 
the church which was at Jerusalem: and 
they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as An- 
tioch." Yes ; this model church sent out a missionary to 



Apostolic Churches Missionary. 35 

a heathen city to preach the Gospel. This was a foreign 
mission. Thus, we have seen that the church organized 
by the personal ministry of Christ, was a missionary 
church ; for she sent forth Barnabas to Antioch to preach 
the Gospel. And this Church at Antioch, gathered by 
missionary labor, sent out Barnabas and Paul, on a mis- 
sion to the heathen. This is recorded thus : " And when 
they had fasted and prayed, and laid their 
hands on them, they sent them away. So, ' ' 

they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost, departed unto 
Selucia : and from thence they sailed to Cypress." And 
after these eminent missionaries had preached the Gospel 
successfully to many heathen cities, they returned to the 
same church and made a report of their labors and suc- 
cess in their mission, which is thus recorded : " And when 

they were come, and had gathered the church 

Acts 14 : 27. 
together, they rehearsed all that God had 

done with them, and how he had opened the door of faith 
unto the Gentiles." We have now discovered that the 
churches at Jerusalem and Antioch were missionary 
churches. And of a certain brother, Paul said : " And we 
have sent with him [Titus] the brother, 
whose praise is in the Gospel throughout 
all the churches; and not that only, but who was also 
chosen of the churches to travel with us," etc. This brother 
was chosen of the churches and sent on a mission; and 
these brethren were called "messengers of the churches." 
As we have shown that the model Church at Jerusalem, 
and some of the churches planted by the apostles, were 
missionary, it is evident that all those churches were 
of the same character, from the fact that they were or- 
ganized under the direction of the Spirit. And, in re- 



36 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

gard to the support of these missionaries, Paul said, 
• " Even so hath the Lord ordained that they 

which preach the Gospel should live of the 
Gospel." Here is the foreordination and decree of God 
for the support of the ministry. And more — the apos- 
tle Paul ventured to take wages for his support in the 
no missionary work. He said, " I robbed other 

churches, taking wages of them, to do you 
service." But if a modern missionary should do the 
same thing, it would be considered, by some of our anti- 
brethren, a very high crime. The great ado made by our 
brethren concerning missionary boards, and the manner of 
raising means for the support of our missionaries, appears 
to me to be altogether puerile. The emphatic command 
of Jesus Christ to his missionaries, is, to go and preach 
the Gospel to every creature. The minister can frame no 
excuse for the neglect of this urgent command. But for 
a bitter controversy to arise about the mode of travel, 
whether the missionary should go on foot, as did Christ 
and some of the apostles ; on horse-back, in a carriage, 
or by ship, would amount to the supreme of the ridicu- 
lous. And of the same nature, to my mind, is the mod- 
ern controversy about the means of sending funds to the 
missionaries in the field. We regard it as of very small 
moment whether the " wages " for missionary support be 
the fruit of individual donations, whether in or out of the 
church, or of the liberality of one or many churches; and, 
whether these wages be sent to him by a messenger ap- 
pointed by one church or many, or whether these wages 
are collected and forwarded by a missionary board ap- 
pointed for that purpose, is of small consequence. These 
matters do not enter into church organization, but they 



Ministerial -Education — Ancient (Baptists. 37 

are pecuniary transactions left to the taste or convenience 
of the brethren, so that all things are done honestly in 
the fear of God. 

To my mind it would be just as suitable for the Anti- 
Mission brethren to contend that no missionary should 
ride on horse-back, because the Saviour rode an ass ; or, 
that no Christian has a right to travel by rail, because 
neither Christ nor the apostles traveled in this way ! I 
would not undervalue, in the least, any law or command 
of Jesus Christ, but would urge strict obedience to all the 
requisitions of Heaven. And I consider it a positive 
command, resting on the churches of Christ, to execute the 
commission to preach the Gospel to every creature. This 
they must do to the extent of their ability, through their 
servants, the ministry; otherwise they are guilty before 
God, of disobedience to a positive command of our Sa- 
vior. 



Section V. — The ancient regular baptists in 

FAVOR OF MINISTERIAL EDUCATION. 

Baptists freely admit, " That not many wise men after 

the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble 

are called." But, at the same time, they 

hold, with Paul, that the minister of Christ should "studj r 

to show" himself "approved unto God, a 

2 Tim 2* 15 
workman that needeth not to be ashamed, 

rightly dividing the word of truth." 

The Regular Baptists of American, from w^hom the 
Anti-Mission brethren seceded, were in favor of minis- 
terial education from the very first. 

This fact is fully settled by reference to the Minutes of 



38 Missionary and Old School (Baptists. 

the Philadelphia Association, which was the representa- 
tive of Baptist practice on this continent for many years. 
In the Minutes of 1722, more than a hundred years be- 
fore the Hard-Shell separation, we have the following 
record of the action of this association : " It was pro- 
posed for the churches to make inquiry 
Phil. Bapt. Asso. ,1 t •<? ,-1 i 

27 r among themselves, if they nave any young 

persons hopeful for the ministry, and in- 
clinable for learning; and if they have, to give notice of 
it to Mr. Able Morgan before the 1st of November, that 
he might recommend such to the Academy on Mr. Hollis, 
his account." And some time after this the Rhode Island 
College, now Brown University, was established under 
the patronage of the association, for the education of 
young Baptist ministers. And in the year 1769, "All 
the ministers of this association have ex- 
plicitly engaged to exert themselves in 
endeavoring to raise more for the same purpose " ; i. e., for 
the education of young ministers. 

Again, in the Minutes of 1789, we have the following : 
" After conferring upon the necessity and 

^ ; a P • sso * importance of raising a fund for the edu- 
p. 246. * to 

cation oi pious and promising young men 

for the ministry, we, the members present, do engage to 
promote subscriptions in our respective churches and con- 
gregations, for said purpose ; and to bring in the monies 
raised, with the subscription ^papers, to the next associa- 
tion, to be at their disposal." 

The question is now settled; the real Old Baptists of 
America were hearty in the support of ministerial educa- 
tion. 

The opposition among Baptists to the education of the 



Ministerial Education — Ancient (Baptists. 39 

ministry is a modern development. By an examination 
of .the Minutes it will be seen that "The Philadelphia As- 
sociation, from the first, has engaged earn- ^ T ., A 

i . „, pi i ,. n Phil Asso.. v. b. 

estly m enorts tor the proper education oi 

its ministers and the spread of the Gospel in the world. 
Rhode Island College, now Brown University, received 
its patronage and contributions, from its origin, as the 
subsequent Minutes show." Among English Baptists, 
Bristol College was established, by the liberality of Mr. 
Terrill, under the patronage of Broad Mead Church. 
This Baptist College went into operation 
in the year 1710, more than a hundred ^ rawi ^ w * 
years before the Anti-Mission division. A 
vast number of ministers have been educated in this col- 
lege, several of whom emigrated to America and aided 
in planting our early churches. And also, in the General 
Association of Baptists, which convened in London in 

1689, it was "resolved to raise a fund for 

. . -i , . , r» i i Ben, His. Bapt., 

missionary purposes, and to assist feeble ooa . * ' 

churches ; also, tor the purpose oi minis- 
terial education." 

Thus the question is made out, that the real old English 
Baptists were in favor of ministerial education. But the 
question may still be asked — Were the Dutch Baptists 
in favor of ministerial education? Of them Mr. Cramp 
remarks : 

" During their troubles, it was impossible to carry into 
effect any educational plans. When peace 
was restored, the desirableness of securing ™mp s ap . 
an educated ministry became a matter of 
earnest consideration. Sound views were entertained, and 



40 Missionary and Old School ^Baptists. 

a college was established at Amsterdam, which has proved 
a great blessing to the denomination." 

This college was established by the Dutch Baptists 
about the close of the sixteenth century, about two hun- 
dred and fifty years before the Hard-Shell opposition to 
ministerial education. 

The ancient Baptists were not only favorable to the edu- 
cation of ministers, but they also favored the education of 
the masses. Roberson gives an account of a Baptist female 
school, in Bohemia, in the time of the reign of Uladislaus 
II., as follows: 

" They kept a school for young ladies, and their mode 
of education and the purity of their man- 
' cc ' es '' ners were in such high repute, that the 
daughters of a very great part of the no- 
bility of Bohemia were sent thither to be educated; and 
their bitterest enemies say, they kept the young ladies 
from the company of the other sex, and formed their 
manners with so much innocence, that there was nothing 
reprehensible except the one single article of heresy." 

Here we have the account of a Baptist female school 
hundreds of years before the " Hard-Shell " opposition to 
education. The ancient Waldensian Baptists were also 
in favor of education. Perrin says : 

"In the year 1229, the Waldenses had already spread 

themselves in great numbers throughout 
Perrin's History ^ j^ Th had ^ ^ fa . y ^ 

Waldenses, p. 117. . J J 

camonica alone, and they sent money from 

all parts of their abode in Lombardy, for the maintenance 

and support of said schools." So the ancient Waldenses 

were not "Hard-Shells" on the school question. They 

supported denominational schools in the year 1229, more 



Female Education. 41 

than six hundred years before the "Hard-Shell" separa- 
tion. So it may be set down as a settled point, that on 
the questions of missions and education, our Anti-Mission 
brethren are the New School Baptists. 



42 American (Baptists. 



CHAPTER III. 

AMERICAN BAPTISTS. 

1. Roger Williams was never a Member of a true, legit- 

imate Baptist Church. 

2. The Newport, and not the present Providence First 

Church, the oldest Baptist Church in America. 

3. No present Baptist Church or Minister has Baptism 

by Succession from Roger Williams. 

4. Baptist Ministers from Europe who aided in Planting 

the early america^ churches. 

Section I. — Roger Williams was never a member 

OF A TRUE, LEGITIMATE BAPTIST CHURCH. 

While the Baptists are peculiar in every leading fea- 
ture in their church organization, they are equally so in 
regard to their history. The church succession of all 
other denominations is interrupted by a human origin of 
recent date, or merged into the succession of the Romish 
apostacy ; but the Baptists claim a succession independent 
of Rome, or any other worldly establishment, directly up 
to the time of Christ on earth. The false representation, 
that the " Missionary " Baptists originated with the " Old 
School" or Anti-Mission Baptists, has been fully met in 
the last chapter. And our succession, as Regular or Mis- 
sionary Baptists, carries us beyond the " Hard-Shell" 
separation. And our succession, reaching back to the time 
of the settlement of the American colonies, is undisputed. 
In following up our history, during this period of two 
hundred and forty years, many have been the trials and 



(Roger Williams not fully a (baptist. 43 

persecutions to which our brethren have been subjected. 
We find them in Virginia and Massachusetts, suffering 
reproaches, fines, banishments, imprisonments and whip- 
ping, for their unwavering attachment to Baptist prin- 
ciples. Baptists have, in every age, been the firm sup- 
porters of civil as well as religious liberty. Therefore, in 
the Revolutionary War, they stood with Washington, in 
defense of American liberty, against the British yoke. 
And, as will be seen in the sequel, American liberty owes 
its existence to Baptist influence. 

But in following up the Baptist succession, we are again 
met by the stereotyped charge, that the American Bap- 
tists all sprang from Roger Williams, and their baptisms 
from his informal baptism; and consequently their chain 
of succession is broken. And this charge, that Roger Wil- 
liams is the father and founder of the Baptist denomina- 
tion in America, is attempted to be sustained by the state- 
ment of Mr. Benedict, as follows: "In 1639, he [Roger 
Williams] was baptized by Ezekiel Holli- 
man, a layman who was appointed by the e ^ 1 ^ a ^ ' 9 
little company for the purpose ; then he bap- 
tized the rest of the company, and thus laid the foundation 
for the first Baptist church in Providence, and on the 
American continent." 

Now, if there was no uncertainty concerning the cor- 
rectness of the above statement, it would prove nothing 
in regard to the origin of the Baptist churches of Amer- 
ica. It would be entirely gratuitous to infer that all the 
churches on the continent sprang from this, even if it 
had been the first church organized in America. Many 
churches have been organized from which no other churches 
have originated. But Mr. Benedict himself was confused 



44 American (Baptists. 

and unsettled in regard to the Eoger Williams affair. And 
after writing the above, he makes the following remarks : 
"The more I study on this subject, the more I am unset- 
tled and confused. As to his retiring soon 

Ben. His. Bapt., n ,1 ," i «» -.i i 

440 irom the pastoral omce, there can be no 

dispute; but whether this was on account 
of the burden of public duties, or from embarrassments in 
his feelings, is a point by no means clear. * * * It 
has been said that he joined with the Seekers — because 
dissatisfied with all church organizations, with his lay- 
baptism, etc. — and waited for the revival of a new and 
apostolical order of things." 

The fact that Benedict was, in mind, "unsettled and 
confused " in regard to the Eoger Williams affair, renders 
his testimony on this subject of but little value. No man 
can speak or write clearly and definitely upon a subjeci 
about which he is "unsettled and confused." I would 
not impeach the veracity of Mr. Benedict as a historian ; 
but I only propose to introduce, from other historians, the 
facts necessary to settle the points upon which he was 
unsettled. And, by way of settling these points, we will 
now proceed to show that Roger Williams was never a 
member, much less the founder, of a true, legitimate Baptist 
Church. On this subject, Mr. Backus, the historian, says : 
"Mr. Williams had been accused before of embracing 

principles which tended to Anabaptism; 
Backus, Ch. His., and in March ^ 1639 ^ he wag baptize d by 

one of his brethren, and then he baptized 
about ten more. But in July following, such scruples 
were raised in his mind about it, that he refrained from 
such administrations among them. Mr. Williams dis- 
covers in his writing, that as sacrifices and other acts of 



(Roger Williams not fully a (Baptist. 45 

worship were omitted by the people of God, while his 
temple lay in ruins; and that they were restored again by 
immediate direction from Heaven, so that some such di- 
rection was necessary to restore the ordinances of baptism 
and the supper, since the desolation of the church in mys- 
tical Babylon." 

We here learn from Mr. Backus that, within four months 
after his baptism, Mr. Williams retired from his position as 
pastor of his society, and renounced his own baptism as 
invalid, and waited for the ordinances of baptism and the 
supper to be restored by immediate direction from Heaven. 
And as he rejected the church ordinances, which are 
essential to church existence, he therefore rejected all 
claims for his society to be a Church of Christ. And, as 
he thus repudiated the claims of his society to be a church 
at all, he thereby rejected all claims to have been a church 
member. The question may be asked, " What is the cause 
of the confusion concerning the history of the Providence 
church ? " 

The answer is found in the history of the first Baptist 
church in America, by S. Adlam, from which I make sev- 
eral quotations. Mr. Adlam says : " The 
church at Providence never has had any ^B V LCUn 
creed or any covenant; till the year 1700 
it had no meeting-house, but, in fine weather, worshiped 
in a grove, and, when inclement, in private houses. Not 
till the year 1775, had it any regular records. Can we 
be surprised that, in tracing the history of such a body, 
a hundred years after its origin, unless ancient writers are 
carefully studied, that material errors will be made ? " It 
thus appears that the first church in Providence had no 
written records for more than a hundred years after its 



46 American (Baptists. 

organization. And it will also appear that the compiler 
of these records was incompetent to the, task, from the 
fact that he made several gross errors in regard to known 
facts. As an example of his blunders, Mr. Adlam in- 
serts, from the Church Records, the following: "'Rev. 
Thomas Olney succeeded (Gregory Dex- 

Amerfca Pt Ch 26 ^ t0 the P astoral ° ffice ' He WaS born 
27 28 ' ' a ^ Hertford, in England, about the year 

1631, and came to America in 1654; but 
when baptized or ordained, is not known. He was the 
Chief who made a division about the laying on of hands. 
He and others withdrew, and formed a separate church, 
but it continued only a short time. He died June 11, 
1722, and was buried in his own field/ Difficult would 
it be, in the same amount of language, to find so much 
misconception and error as here. Never should Thomas 
Olney, to whom justice has not yet been done, have been 
spoken of thus. The writer, doubtless, intended to be 
correct; but so little did he know of history, that he con- 
founded two individuals, probably father and son, to- 
gether. If he alludes to the son, then it was not in his, 
but in his father's day that the division occurred. If he 
alludes to the father, then he died, not in 1722, but forty 
years before — in 1682. This confusion of persons and 
dates, would invalidate any testimony. But this is not 
all. Olney is placed as the successor of Brown, Wicken- 
den, and Dexter. In the ministry, he preceded them all, 
and never was pastor of the church which they set up. 
The records say that he was the Chief who made the di- 
vision, and that he, and others with him, withdrew and 
formed a separate church. It wasWickenden and his asso- 
ciates that went off; and even Dr. Hague says, ' it was 



(Roger Williams not fully a (Baptist. 47 

they who formed the separate church/ The records say 
that he came to Providence in 1654; he was town treas- 
urer of that place in 1639. 

But I forbear. It may be said that the records speak 
not of the father, but of the son. Then where is the ev- 
idence that the Olney who died in 17!? 2, was pastor of 
Wickenden's church after Dexter's death ; that he made 
a division about laying on of hands ; that he withdrew 
and formed a separate church ? Is there a single ancient 
writer that has recorded it, or alluded to it ? And if the 
son be alluded to, where, in giving an account of Baptist 
ministers in Providence, is the father alluded to — that an- 
cient man in whose day a division did take place ; and 
who saw, in 1652, his church receive such a wound, that, 
after sixty years' struggling for existence, it at last ex- 
pired ? Look, also, at Chad. Browne ; he is made pastor 
of the church ten years before it began to exist ! But I 
will pursue this subject no further. What is the value of 
records like these ? And yet it is by these records, and 
documents like them, that the Providence church carries 
date back to 1639, claims to be the first in the State, and 
the oldest of the Baptists in America." 

It is of these imperfect Church Records, compiled by 
John Standford one hundred and thirty-six years after 
the formation of the Roger Williams Society, that Mr. 
Benedict says : " The author, Messrs. Knowles, Hague, 
and all historians since, have been in- 
debted to them for the few details which ^akJ^ '' m ' 9 

p. 457. 
have been preserved of the doings of this 

ancient community." And, in a foot-note, Mr. Benedict 
further remarks : " My present historical details are taken 
partly from my first volume, and partly from Hague's 



48 American (Baptists. 

Historical Discourse, delivered in 1839, at the expira- 
tion of two hundred years from the found- 
Hw.^Bapt., Ben., ing of the churck But the Church Rec- 
ords are the only source of information 
to us all." 

It is here shown, by Mr. Benedict, that all the histo- 
rians who make the present first church of Providence 
the Roger Williams church, depend alone upon the Church 
Records, compiled by Mr. Stanford, for all their informa- 
tion concerning this church. But Mr. Adlam has shown, 
from the records themselves, that they are not to be relied 
on, because of the numerous contradictions of known his- 
toric facts. And as we have already shown, Mr. Bene- 
dict was unsettled and confused concerning Roger Wil- 
liams and the Providence church. And that Mr. Bene- 
dict's mind was not clear concerning the history of Roger 
Williams, is seen in the following : " And what but the 
strength of prejudice could lead to such 
w - a P •> m *> untiring efforts as have been put forth for 
almost two centuries past, to manufacture 
capital against the denomination from the obscure or 
apochryphal history of this solitary man ? " 

Full enough has been produced to show that the con- 
fusion and obscurity in the mind of Benedict and others, 
was produced by the confused and obscure records of the 
old Providence church. But developments have been 
made which are amply sufficient to settle those points 
which were so difficult to Mr. Benedict. 

It has already been seen, from Mr. Backus, that Roger 
Williams repudiated his baptism and church relationship 
in four months after the organization of his society. We 
will now proceed to show that his society also disbanded, 



(Roger Williams not fully a (Baptist. 49 

or came to nothing, in about four months after its forma- 
tion. 

In regard to the Roger Williams Society, Cotton Mather, 
a Puritan Pedobaptist, says : " One Roger Williams, a 
preacher, who arrived in New England 

about the year 1630, was first an assistant .-**' 7 a ^.'' ™l' 
J ' by, vol. I, p. 117. 

in the church of Salem, and afterward 
pastor. This man — a difference happening between the 
Government and him — caused a great deal of trouble and 
vexation. At length the magistrates passed the sentence 
of banishment upon him ; upon which he removed, with 
a few of his own sect, and settled at a place called Prov- 
idence. There they proceeded," says Mr. Mather, " not 
only unto the gathering of a thing like a church, but unto 
the renouncing their infant baptism. After this," he says, 
" he turned Seeker and Familist, and the church came to 
nothing." 

Here we have the testimony of Cotton Mather, as 
quoted by Crosby, that when Roger Williams turned 
Seeker, his society, or thing like a church, came to noth- 
ing. But we have before seen, from Mr. Backus, that he 
turned Seeker and renounced his baptism and church or- 
ganization in July, after he was baptized in March. Hence 
we conclude, that the Roger Williams church came to 
nothing in about four months after its organization. 

Again : Mr. Adlam introduces another important wit- 
ness, as follows : " There is one writer whose testimony is 
of the highest value on this subject. I al- 
lude to Thomas Lechford, who was in A zrs . a ^ ' « K " m 

' America, p. 35. 

New England from 1637 till about Aug- 
ust, 1641 ; and, among other places, he visited Provi- 
dence, somewhere, I judge, about the close of 1640, or the 



50 American (Baptists. 

beginning of 1641. He inquired, with great diligence, 
into the ecclesiastical affairs of the country, and gave a 
faithful account. Against the Baptists he had no special 
prejudices more than against the Congregationalists, for 
he was an Episcopalian. But whatever were his own con- 
victions, I have gained, in many respects, a more exact 
view of New England, during these four years, from him 
than from any other person. When speaking of Provi- 
dence, he says : i At Providence, which is twenty miles 
from the said Island (Rhode Island, which he had also 
visited), lives Master Williams and his company, of di- 
vers opinions ; most are Anabaptists. They hold there is 
no true, visible church in the Bay, nor in the world, nor 
any true ministry/ Mark this account. It is from an 
eye-witness, about a year and a half after Williams re- 
nounced baptism, churches, ministry, and all." 

With such an array of evidence, that Roger Williams, 
with his church, within a few months after its formation, 
renounced their baptism and church organization, and 
even affirmed that there was no true church in the world, 
how passing strange that any one, much less a Baptist, 
should have conceived the erroneous idea that Roger Wil- 
liams was the founder of a Baptist church at all. And as 
no one pretends that Roger Williams ever belonged to a 
Regular Baptist church, but only to his own little anom- 
alous society, which fell to pieces in a few months; there- 
fore, it is evident that Roger Williams was never a member 
of any true, legitimate Baptist church. 

After a thorough investigation of all the facts and rec- 
ords, Mr. Adlam makes the following concluding remarks : 
" Among the evils that have resulted from the wrong date 
of the Providence church, has been the prominence given 



The .Newport Church the Oldest in America. 51 

to Roger Williams. It is greatly to be re- 
gretted, that it ever entered into the mind ^ ierica ' 39 
of any one to make him, in America, 
the founder of our denomination. In no sense was he so. 
Well would it be for Baptists, and for Williams him- 
self, could his short and fitful attempt to become a Bap- 
tist, be obliterated from the minds of men. A man only 
four months a Baptist, and then renouncing his baptism 
forever, to be lauded and magnified as the founder of the 
Baptist denomination in the New World! As a leader 
in civil and religious liberty, I do him homage; as a Bap- 
tist, I owe him nothing." 



Section II. — The Newport, and not the present 

PROVIDENCE CHURCH, IS THE OLDEST BAPTIST 
CHURCH IN AMERICA. 

Not long after the dissolution of the Roger Williams 
Society, which only existed a few months, Thomas Olney, 
one of the persons baptized by Williams, gathered a 
church at Providence. Some historians have made Olney 
the successor of Williams in the pastorship over the 
Williams church. He was the successor of Mr. Williams 
as pastor in Providence, not over the Williams church, 
but over the one gathered some time after the Williams 
church came to nothing. So, Olney's church was the 
second formed in Providence, over which he officiated as 
pastor till his death, in 1682. But about the year 1652, 
a division occurred in the Olney church ; a number of 
members broke off and formed a six-principle Baptist 
church. This new church was formed under the leader- 
ship of Elders Dexter, Wickenden, and Browne, who were 



52 American (Baptists. 

Elders together in its formation, and succeed each other 
in the pastorship of this church. That there were two 
Baptist churches in Providence as early as 1652 or '53, is 
an undisputed historic fact. Mr. Adlam introduces the 
testimony of Mr. Staples, as follows : " Staples, in his an- 
nals of Providence, says : i There were two 
irs ap . i. m j> a p^ s £ churches i n Providence as early as 
America, p. 7. r ... 

1652 ; one of the six-principle, and the 

other of the five-principle Baptists. This appears from a 

manuscript diary kept by John Comer, a Baptist preacher 

in Newport/ " Again, Mr. Adlam introduces Comer thus : 

" Comer, in his manuscript, spells Wickenden's name, as 

it was probably pronounced, Wigginton ; and his exact 

words are : i Mr. William Vaughn, finding a number of 

Baptists in the town of Providence, lately 
First Bapt. Ch. in . . j , , i . • i i i, 

A • o iomed together in special church cove- 

America, p. 8. J to r 

nant, in the faith and practice, and under 
the inspection of Mr. William Wigginton, being hereto- 
fore members of the church under Mr. Thomas Olney, of 
that town, he — i. e., Mr. William Vaughn — went thither in 
the month of October, 1652, and submitted thereto (to 
the imposition of hands), upon which he returned to New- 
port, accompanied with Mr. William Wigginton and Mr. 
Gregory Dexter, etc/ " 

Once more — Mr. Callender says: " ( About the year 

1653 or 1654, there was a division in the 
irs ap . .(A jj a p^ s £ church at Providence, about the 

rite of laying on of hands, which some 
pleaded for as essentially necessary to church communion, 
and the others would leave indifferent. Hereupon they 
walked in two churches : one under C. Browne, Wick- 
enden, etc.; the other under Thomas Olney/ — Page 114." 



The First Church in America. 53 

From the above documents, and others which might be 
introduced, it is clearly shown that about the year 1652 
or 1653, there was a division in the Olney Providence 
church about the laying on of hands before communion, 
and that Wickenden, Dexter and Brov/ne, were the lead- 
ers, who w r ent off and formed the new church, which was 
the third church formed in Providence. This was the 
six-principle church, which, as will be seen, has continued 
to the present time, and is known as the First Church in 
Providence. But Mr. Olney continued as pastor over 
the old interest, which was the second church in Provi- 
dence. This is further shown, in the language of Mr. 
Backus, the historian, as quoted by Mr. Adlam, as fol- 
lows: "Thomas Olney, senior, also died 

this year, (1682). He w 7 as next to Mr. A l7S . ap ' n 
; . - . America, p. 9. 

Williams in the pastoral office at Provi- 
dence, and continued so to his death, over that part of 
the church w T ho are called five-principle Baptists, in dis- 
tinction from those who parted from their brethren about 
the year 1653, under the leading of Elder Wickenden, 
holding the laying on of hands upon -every church mem- 
ber." 

But which of these two Providence churches — 01- 
ney's five-principle church, or the seceded six-principle 
church, under Wickenden, etc. — is the present first 
church in Providence ? "We answer, in the language of 
Mr. Adlam : " Two things show that the 

existing; is the seceding; church. 1st. ™ s . a ^ * " m 

... ° America, p. 11. 

Every writer, including the record, men- 
tions Browne, Wickenden and Dexter, as former pastors of 
that church. 2d. The present church, from 1652 until 
1770, was known only as six-principle, while Olney 's was 



54 American (Baptists. 

the five-principle church. From this it follows, that the 

existing church in Providence was not founded in 1639, 

but 1652 ; it was not the first church in the State, for it 

came out from an older church ; it is not the oldest of the 

Baptists in America, for the Newport church was founded, 

unquestionably, eight years before ; and so far from Roger 

Williams being its founder and first pastor, he was in 

England when it was founded ; and thirteen years before, 

he had ceased to be a Baptist. It also follows, that the 

time when Roger Williams was baptized, has nothing to 

do in determining the age of the present church." 

Thus, it is shown that the present Providence church, 

which was organized in 1652, by Wickenden, Dexter, and 

Browne, has taken, instead of her own date, the date of 

the Roger Williams Society. But what became of the 

old Olney five-principle church. Mr. Adlam says: "A 

melancholy interest invests the last no- 
First Bapt. Ch. in .. i /? i v > ^ i t, 

A • I* i* ^ lce we have oi this ancient church. It 

A?ner., pp. 16, 17. 

continued till early in the last century, 
when it became extinct, leaving no records, and but few 
events in its history behind. The fullest information of 
it I have found, is in a note by Callender, on the 115th 
page of his Discourse. Speaking of this church, he adds 
below: 'This last continued till about twenty years 
ago, when, becoming destitute of an elder, the members 
were united with other churches ;' and further adds, c At 
present there is some prospect of their re-establishment in 
church order/ This was written in 1738. The church 
had then been extinct about twenty years; that is, it lost 
its visibility about 1718. Morgan Edwards says, that 
the church under Olney continued till 1715: so that it 
continued, after the division in 1652, for more than 



First Church in America. 55 

sixty years, when, discouraged, they scattered, never to 
be united again. And thus passed away the original 
church, and the waves of time have almost obliterated its 
remembrance from the minds of men. Callender indeed 
thought, when he wrote, that it might be re-established, 
and in this he would have rejoiced, as it would have 
afforded him a church that would hold communion with 
him and with the people under his care ; but he was dis- 
appointed, and for more than one hundred and thirty 
years the old church in Providence is among the things 
that were." 

From the foregoing facts and dates, it is fully settled 
that the present Providence first church, which was the 
third organization in that place, was not organized prior 
to the year sixteen hundred and fifty-two. It can not, 
therefore, be the first church in America, from the fact 
that all historians agree that the Newport church was 
organized as early as 1644. And granting this to be the 
true date of the Newport church — which I will show to be 
a mistake — it makes the Newport church eight years older 
than the present Providence church. Our earliest writers 
ascribe this priority to the Newport church. 

Mr. Adlam quotes John Comer as follows : " Comer, 

the first, and, for the early history of our 

denomination, the most reliable of writers, A lTS . ap ' ' m 
\ / America, p. 19. 

ascribes, distinctly and repeatedly, this 
priority to the Newport church. * He had formed the de- 
sign, more than a hundred and twenty years ago, of 
writing the history of the American Baptists ; and in that 
work, which he only lived to commence — but which em- 
braces an account of this church — he says in one place, 
1 that it is the first of the Baptist denomination/ And, 



56 American (Baptists. 

closing his history of it, says, ' Thus I have briefly given 
some account of the settlement and progress of the first 
Baptist church of Rhode Island, in New England, and 
the first in America/ " 

What right have we to invalidate the emphatic state- 
ment of John Comer, the first Baptist historian of Amer- 
ica, upon the "confused" evidence of Mr. Benedict, who 
confesses that he gets all his information from the Church 
Records, which have been shown to be incorrect? And 
more — later developments have established the fact, that 
the Newport church is not only the first church in Amer- 
ica, but that it was established in 1638, one year before 
the Roger Williams church was formed. This is clearly 
made out from a note in the Minutes of the Philadelphia 
Association, as follows: "When the first church in New- 
port, Rhode Island, was one hundred years 
PhU^Bapt.Asso., ol ^ . n 173 g^ m John Callender ^ their 

minister, delivered and published a sermon 
on the occasion." Yes; in the year seventeen hundred and 
thirty-eight, the first church in Newport was one hundred 
years old. This gives us sixteen hundred and thirty-eight 
as the true date of the organization of the Newport church. 
This date is also confirmed by the inscription on the tomb- 
stone of Dr. John Clark, who organized this church. As 
this inscription contains important facts and dates, which 
should be preserved, I give it entire, as follows : 



First Church in America. 57 

"to the memory of 

DOCTOB JOHN CLAEKE, 

One of the original purchasers and proprietors of 

this Island, and one of the founders of the Flrst Ba P L 

First Baptist Church in Newport, '^ m "' 

its first pastor and munificent benefactor : 

He was a native of Bedfordshire, England, 

and a practitioner of physic in London. 

He, with his associates, came to this Island from Mass., 

in March, 1638, O. S., and on the 24th 

of the same month obtained a deed thereof from 

the Indians. He shortly after gathered 

the Church aforesaid, and became its pastor. 

In 1651, he, with Eoger Williams, was sent to England, 

by the people of Ehode Island Colony, 

to negotiate the business of the Colony with the 

British ministry : Mr. Clarke was instrumental 

in obtaining the Charter of 1663 from Charles II : which 

secured to the people of the States free and 

full enjoyment of judgment and conscience in matters 

of religion. He remained in England 

to watch over the interest of the Colony until 1664, 

and then returned to Newport and 

resumed the pastoral care of his Church. 

Mr. Clarke and Mr. Williams, two fathers of the Colony, 

strenuously and fearlessly maintained thalf 

none but Jesus Christ had authority 

over the affairs of conscience. He died 

April 20, 1676, in the 66th year 

of his age, and is here interred." 

There is no higher historic authority concerning the im- 
portant dates and acts of a man's life, than the epitaph 
upon his tomb. This inscription upon the tombstone of 
Dr. John Clarke, must have been prepared under the di- 
rection of those who were personally cognizant of the facts 



58 American (Baptists. 

stated. And it is emphatically stated, and graven in the 
rock, that Dr. John Clarke came to this Island in March, 
1638, and that "he shortly after gathered the church afore- 
said, and became its pastor " 

As he gathered the church shortly after he came to 
Rhode Island, it must have been gathered in the year six- 
teen hundred and thirty-eight — one year before the " thing 
like a church/' formed by Roger Williams, wasborn. On 
this point Mr. Adlam says : " After all the investigations 

I have made, I have come to the conchi- 
es ap . . g . Qn ^Qfc ^ e ^ rue date of the Newport 
in Amer., p. 45. , r _ 

church is 1638, and that any other is alto- 
gether arbitrary. My reasons for these views are the fol- 
lowing: We know that in the year 1638, a church was 
formed on the Island, and Dr. Clarke became its pastor ; 
and we have no information that that church ever became 
extinct. On the Island, there is no allusion to such an 
event in any record ; nor does tradition ever speak of our 
church but as the original church on the Island : other 
churches came out from us — we from no other." 

We consider it a point now fully made out, that the 
Newport, and not the Providence church, is the oldest 
Baptist church in America. 



Section III. — No present baptist church or min- 
ister HAS BAPTISM, BY SUCCESSION, FROM ROGER 
WILLIAMS. 

It can not be shoion that any present Baptist church or 
minister has received baptism by 'succession from Roger 
Williams. — Our adversaries seem to think, that if they 
can prove that the Roger Williams Society was the first 



JVo Succession from Williams. 59 

Baptist church established in America, they have estab- 
lished the position that all the Baptists of America have 
descended from Roger Williams. They point to Roger 
"Williams with an air of triumph, and say : " Here your 
chain of succession is broken." But if it could be shown, 
which is not the case, that the Roger Williams Society 
was the first Baptist church in America, this would have 
no more to do with the genealogy of Baptist churches in 
America than the discovery of America by Columbus has 
to do with the origin or genealogy of the citizens of this 
country. Suppose some political logician should draw the 
conclusion, that because Columbus was the first discoverer 
of America, therefore all the inhabitants of America are 
the descendants of Columbus! What would be thought 
of such reasoning? No man of common sense would re- 
ceive such teaching. But thousands who are influenced 
more by prejudice than reason or revelation, are ready to 
say with one voice, that " the Baptists of America sprang 
from Roger Williams, because he was the founder of the 
first Baptist church on this continent ! " 

Such persons exhibit the disposition of the animal in 
the manger, w^hich could not eat hay himself and was de- 
termined that the ox should not. They have no succes- 
sion themselves except the Romish, and they are determ- 
ined to cut off the Baptist succession. But we are asked, 
"Does not Mr. Benedict say, that the old Providence 
church was the prolific mother of many 
Baptist communities ? " But this was not ^* w * a ^ ' f 
said concerning the Roger Williams 
church, which, as already shown, came to nothing in a 
few months after its formation ; nor of the Olney church, 
which also, after a series of years, became extinct; but it 



60 American (Baptists. 

was said concerning the church, established about 1652, 
under Dexter, Wickenden and Browne, neither of whom 
received their baptism from Roger Williams. And Greg- 
ory Dexter was a Baptist preacher in London before he 
came to Providence, in 1644. So that even the Provi- 
dence church was organized by a minister whose succes- 
sion extends to the English Baptists. 

On this point, Mr. Graves says : "It can not be shown 

that any Baptist church sprang from Wil- 

iSlLloT^' PP " Hams' affair. Nor can it be proved that 

the baptism of any Baptist minister came 

from Williams' hands. 

The oldest Baptist church in America is the one now 
existing, with her original articles of faith, in Newport, 
R. I. ; and she was planted by Dr. John Clarke, before 
Williams was baptized. 

* He received his baptism in Elder StillwelPs church, in 
London, and that church received hers from the Dutch 
Baptists of Holland — sending over a minister to be 
baptized by them. These Baptists descended from the 
Waldenses, whose historical line reaches far back, and 
connects with the Donatists, and theirs, to the apostolical 
churches. 

A writer in the Christian Review condenses the facts 
of history into the following eleven statements, which can 
be confidently relied upon : 

<1. Roger Williams was baptized by Ezekiel Holli- 
man, March, 1639; and immediately after, he baptized 
Mr. Holliman and ten others. 

i 2. These formed a church, or society, of which Roger 
Williams was the pastor. 

[3.] 'Four months after his baptism — that is, in July 



JVo Succession from Williams. 61 

following — Williams left the church, and never afterward 
returned to it. As his doubts respecting baptism and the 
perpetuity of the church, which led to this step, must 
have commenced soon after his baptism, it is not likely 
that he baptized any others. # 

1 4. The church which Williams formed, came to noth- 
ing, or was dissolved soon after he left it. 

'5. It was re-organized, or another was formed, a few 
days afterward, under Mr. Thomas Olney as its pastor, 
who was one of the eleven baptized by Roger Williams. 
Olney continued to be pastor of this church until his 
death, in 1682, somewhat over thirty years. 

<6. In 1653 or 1654, which was a few years after the 
formation of Olney's church, there was a division in that 
church on the question of - laying on of hands ' in the re- 
ception of members; and a separate church was formed 
for the maintenance of this ceremony, under the pastor- 
ship of Chad. Browne, Wickenden, and Dexter. This 
church was perpetuated, having, in 1808, given up its 
original faith as to the l laying on of hands/ and is now 
the First Baptist Church in Providence. 

6 7. The parent church, under Olney, gradually dwin- 
dled away, and became extinct about the year 17 18, some 
seventy years from its origin. 

1 8. No church was formed from Olney 's, after the di- 
vision already mentioned, and no ministers are known to 
have gone out from it. Olney's baptism, whether valid 
or invalid, was not propagated. 

' 9. Nearly a century passed before the church formed 
from Olney 's began to colonize, in 1730. 

' 10. None of its ministers, or the ministers of the 
churches formed from it, received their baptism from 



62 American (Baptists. 

Williams, or from any one whose baptisms descended 
from his. 

'11. The Baptist churches of America, then, could not 
have descended from Roger Williams, or from the tem- 
porary society which he formed. Their true descent is 
from the Baptist churches of Wales and Piedmont, ex- 
tending back to the apostles' times.' " 

The items set forth in this quotation are fully sustained 
by the facts of history. It is both offensive and invidious, 
for those who ought to know better, to persist in the cir- 
culation of the false representation that Roger Williams 
was the founder of the American Baptists. * Those who 
make this charge are wholly inexcusable ; for, if they are 
ignorant of Baptist history, they should not affirm con- 
cerning that about which they are not informed ; but, if 
they know the facts in the case, and still persist in the 
charge, they are evidently dishonest and unworthy of re- 
spect. Who will undertake to trace the succession of any 
living Baptist to Williams ? If our enemies — for enemies 
they are who make such charges — will make no attempt 
to sustain their allegations, let them be regarded with 
that compassion which is due from us toward the false 
accusers of the servants of Jesus Christ. 



Section IV. — Baptist ministers from Europe 

WHO AIDED IN PLANTING THE EARLY AMERICAN 
CHURCHES. 

It has already been fully shown that the Baptists of 
America have not descended from Roger Williams. And 
it now becomes a matter of great interest to know where 
they came from. 



Ministers from Europe. 63 

The Baptists of America number over a million mem- 
bers, and Baptist churches are numbered by thousands, 
whose ministers are proclaiming their heaven-born doc- 
trine to the remotest corners of the world. 

These churches must have been planted by the agency 
of some person or persons. 

I now proceed to give a list of the names of some of 
our brethren who were regularly baptized and ordained 
in Europe ; and who, having fled to the American wilds 
for an asylum which was denied them, aided in the plant- 
ing of the early Baptist churches from which, as flowing 
streams, the denomination has come down to us. At the 
head of this bright catalogue of names, I place the im- 
perishable name of Dr. John Clarke, who received his 
baptism and ordination in London, in a church whose 
succession extends in a regular line back to the apostolic 
age. John Clarke was a man of uncommon eloquence and 
learning, and possessed with a burning zeal for the cause 
of his Master, which caused him to preach the cross of 
Christ in Massachusetts in spite of the laws to the con- 
trary ; and which, after his imprisonment, caused him to 
accept a challenge from the Governor (John Endicot), to 
debate with the learned dignitaries of the established 
church, in defense of Baptist doctrine. But, after giving 
the challenge, these renowned theologians backed out 
from the proposed controversy with this unconquered 
prisoner. 

1. John Clarke was born in Bedfordshire, England, 
in 1609. He came to this country, as a Baptist minister, 
from London. He settled, at first, in Massachusetts; but 
fled from persecution, and arrived in Rhode Island in 
March, 1638 ; and in the same year established the first 



64 American (Baptists. 

Baptist church on the continent of America, in New- 
port, R. I. 

This church is standing yet, with its original constitu- 
tion, as a monument of the truth for which its founder 
suffered. John Clarke, by his influence with the king of 
England (Charles II.), secured the charter granting civil 
and religious liberty to the colony of Rhode Island, 
which afterward was extended over the whole country. 
The Newport first church has, from time to time, sent out 
numerous branches to form other churches. This church, 
as already seen, was formed in 1638, one year prior to the 
informal baptism of Williams ; and yet, it would not be 
proper to call John Clarke the founder of the American 
Baptists. He was only one of many who aided in the or- 
ganization of churches. 

John Callender, the historian of Rhode Island, says of 

John Clarke: "He was a faithful and useful minister, 

courteous in all the relations of life, and 
Cramp's Hist , , i • n * . ,* 

B t 478 an ornamen ^ t° his profession and to the 

several offices which he sustained. His 
memory is deserving of lasting honor, for his efforts to- 
ward establishing the first government in the world which 
gave to all equal civil and religious liberty. To no man 
is Rhode Island more indebted than to him. He was one 
of the original projectors of the settlement of the Island, 
and one of its ablest legislators. No character in New 
England is of purer fame than John Clarke." 

2. Thomas Griffith, from South Wales, emigrated 
with the church of which he was pastor, in the year 1701. 
They settled, at first, near Pennepek, in Pennsylvania, 
where they remained two years, and finally settled at 
Welsh Tract, in Pennsylvania (now Delaware), in 1703, 



Ministers from Europe. 65 

This church was organized in Wales, in 1701, on sixteen 
members. They sailed, in church capacity, on board the 
ship James and Mary. Here we have a whole church, 
with their pastor, emigrating to this country ; they kept 
up their regular church meetings while crossing the 
billows of the Atlantic Ocean. And after its settlement 
at Welsh Tract, it sent forth quite a number of able min- 
isters, who aided in planting our American churches. 
Among these may be mentioned the names of Elisha 
Thomas, Enoch Morgan, Jenkin Jones, Owen Thomas, 
Abel Morgan, and David Davis. The editor of the Min- 
utes of the Philadelphia Association remarks : " That this 
church appears to be very singular in its 

first settlement, and hath been the best l - a P > •> 

... P- 15. 

supplied with ministers of any church be- 
longing to this association." 

And this old Welsh Tract Church sent off branches, as 
swarms from a parent hive, to form 
new churches. As early as 1737, this Davi£ HM Welsh 

™ , Bapt., p. 12o. 

church lettered off thirty members, who 

settled and formed a church at Welsh Neck, on the Pedee 
River, in South Carolina. Will our friends affirm that 
the Welsh Tract Church, with its numerous ministers and 
branches, originated with the Roger Williams affair? 
This church, we learn, has taken sides with the Anti- 
Mission party, and has thereby impaired its usefulness. 

3. John Miles, with several Baptists, came from 
Swansea, Wales, in 1663, and organized 
a church in Massachusetts, which was also D am8 * ^ tst Welsh 
called Swansea, which is the oldest Bap- Bachil'v 93 * ' 
tist church in the State. Elder Miles 
was one of those faithful ministers of Jesus Christ who 



66 American (Baptists. 

suffered persecution under Charles II., and also in Mas- 
sachusetts. So we find that the first church in the Bay- 
State was regularly organized by a Baptist preacher from 
Europe. 

4. Robert Nokdin was ordained as a Baptist minis- 
ter in London, in 1714, and immediately sailed for Vir- 
ginia; and on his arrival he organized a 

Ben. His. Bapt., c h U rch at Burley, in the Isle of Wight 
Backus' Ch Hist coun tyj which was the first Baptist church 
p. 229. organized in the State of Virginia. And 

members emigrating from this church 
spread the cause of truth in North Carolina, and in a 
short time sixteen churches were organized. Thus we 
find that the first church in Virginia was regularly or- 
ganized by a missionary who received his baptism and 
ordination in England; and that from this church many 
of the early churches in North Carolina derived their 
origin. Will any one dare to affirm that the Virginia and 
North Carolina Baptists sprang from the Roger Wil- 
liams affair ? Nothing except bitter prejudice or ignorance 
could have originated the mistake that Williams was the 
founder of the Baptists in America. It is high time that 
professed Christian men had confined themselves within 
the bounds of truth. 

5. Morgan Edwards, who was born in Wales, 1722, 

and educated in Bristol College, which is 
Davis' His. Welsh -q ,. , . ,.,,. . tt, -, -i 

Ba t 77-79 a -^ a P* ls * institution, in England, com- 
menced preaching in his sixteenth year. 
And by the urgent request of Dr. Gill and other London 
ministers, he took passage and arrived in America in the 
year 1761, and became the pastor of the church at Phila- 
delphia. Mr. Edwards was a man of learning and en- 



Ministers from Europe. 67 

ergy. He wrote extensively. Among his productions 
may be mentioned his " Materials toward a History of 
the Baptists in Pennsylvania." This is said to be a 
valuable collection. It may be found in the library at 
Newport. 

6. Samuel Jones, of South Wales, with a number of 

other Baptists, emigrated to America in 

j-i -i£Q£ i j.4.1 j ru i^ i Davis' His. Welsh 

the year 168b ; and settled on the banks n . nn 
J } . Bapt., p. 67. 

of the Pennepek, in Pennsylvania, and went 
into church organization at that place. 

7. Abel Mobgan, of Wales, who was an influential 

Baptist minister and pastor in his native 

, -i i . A . -i^i-i Davis 1 His. Welsh 

country; he arrived in America, 1711, „ fi q 

and took the care of the church in Phila- 
delphia. He was a man of learning. He compiled a 
folio Concordance to the Welsh Bible, which was printed 
in Philadelphia in 1730. It is a popular error to suppose 
that all the early Baptist ministers of this country were 
uneducated men. 

8. William Davis came to Pennsylvania from Wales 
as a Baptist minister. 

9. Hugh Davis, with eight other members of Swan- 
sea church, of South Wales, received a 

letter of dismission and emigrated to Penn- ^ av ^ - e ^- Welsh 
sylvania in 1710. He was a Baptist min- p^ ''J^ o '* ^>' 
ister in Wales, and became the founder 
and first pastor of the church at Great Valley, Chester 
county, Pennsylvania. While one church emigrated in 
church capacity, in other cases members were lettered off 
in order to enter into church organization as soon as they 
should arrive in this country. 

10. David Evans, from Wales, came to America as a 



68 American (Baptists. 



Baptist preacher. We do not possess the 
Davis' His. Welsh i. :1 /. ,n j r n n x i n 

j, . 1A1 details 01 the labors of all these men of 

Bapt.j p. 101. 

God who planted the standard of truth 
in America. 

11. Nathaniel Jenkins. This eminent Baptist 

minister, of Wales, emigrated to America 
avis is. e ^ an ear jy j a y^ ^0^ 1701. He became 

pastor of the church at Cape May, West 
Jersey. It would be interesting to have the details of 
these pioneer Baptists. 

12. Geiffith Jones, who was the able pastor of Hen- 

goed church, in Wales, emigrated to 

Davis' His. Welsh \ • • -j ^ /« n j u x. 

„ , 1AO America m 1749, and became a member 

Bapt., p. 103. 7 

of the Welsh Tract Church and associate 
pastor with David Davis. It will be borne in mind that 
the majority of these standard-bearers labored in the pas- 
toral work on both sides of the Atlantic ocean. They 
were truly pilgrims and strangers on the earth. 

13. Caleb Evans was born in South Wales, educated 

at Bristol College, came to America as a 
cms is. e s g a p^ s ^ minister, and settled at Charles- 
ton, South Carolina, about 1778. It has 
already been noted that the early Baptists of South Caro- 
lina were of Welsh origin. Some of their ministers came 
directly from Wales, while others came from the Welsh 
church in Rhode Island. 

14. John Burrows came from the west of England as 

a Baptist minister in 1711, and labored 
PhilBapt.Asso., firgt in Philadelphia ^ then removed to 

Middletown, in 1713. We are not in the 
possession of the details of this Baptist preacher, more 
than that he was an acceptable minister of Jesus. 



Ministers from Europe. 69 

15. Richard Jones, a Baptist preacher from England, 
settled in Virginia in 1727, where he 

labored thirty years in the ministry. He " ' p '' 

labored in the field previously occupied 
by Robert Nordin, who preceded him as the pioneer Bap- 
tist of the Old Dominion. The succession of the Vir- 
ginia Baptists is back to England. 

16. Casper Mintz came from England and settled in 

Virginia, 1727. He spent about thirty 

- .t . . , tt j.1 Ben. His. Bapt., 

years m the ministry. He was the asso- g42 r ■ 

ciate of Richard Jones ; they both arrived 

in Virginia two years after the death of Robert Nordin. 

17. John Emblem, from England, became the co- 
pastor with Mr. Hull, in Boston, in 1684. 

The Baptists of Boston were sorely per- jnT^ S Jtq ' 
secuted and harrassed by the standing or- 
der in the early part of their history. 

18. Elisha Thomas came from Wales as an original 
member of the Welsh Tract Church. He reached this 
country in 1701. Though he was ordained in this coun- 
try, he was baptized in Wales. He received his ordina- 
tion from the old Welsh Tract Church. 

19. Enoch Morgan also came as one of the original 
members of the Welsh Tract Church. He was also or- 
dained in this country. Other names could be given of 
ministers whose succession was directly from Europe, but 
we close this list with one name more. 

20. Gregory Dexter was a Baptist preacher in Lon- 
don, who came over to Providence, Rhode Island, in 1644. 
He was associated with Wickenden and Browne, as one of 
the founders of the present Providence first church. He 
was the first who taught the art of printing in New Eng- 



70 American (Baptists. 

land. He was a man of remarkable piety ; and lived a 
devoted minister to the advanced age of ninety years. 

Thus we see, after all the smoke and noise raised about 
the Baptists of America descending from Roger Williams, 
that it turns out that even the Providence first church 
has a regular succession, through her founders, back to 
England. 

It can not be proved that any Baptist note living in 
America, or elsewhere, has received baptism, by succession, 
from Roger Williams. Those few Baptists among us who 
have been received among Baptists on their " alien " im- 
pressions, are nearer to the Roger Williams succession 
than any others. 

Here are the names of a score of the many Baptist 
ministers who received their baptism regularly in Europe, 
and emigrated to this country in early times ; they aided 
in bearing the Baptist standard, and planting Baptist 
churches throughout the colonies of America. These self- 
sacrificing Baptist ministers toiled amidst dangers, perse- 
cutions, stripes, and imprisonments, to the end of their 
lives, in extending Baptist principles, and organizing 
Baptist churches on this continent. But, after all, shall 
the whole honor of these mighty labors be ascribed to one 
who only partially embraced Baptist principles for four 
months, was never regularly baptized, never belonged to 
a true Baptist church, was never ordained to the minis- 
try, and repudiated all baptism and church organization 
during the remainder of a life of forty-three years? 
True, Williams was a firm advocate of religious liberty ; 
but this was nothing new to Baptists, for they had con- 
tended for this, as a fundamental principle, through the 
dark ages of Popish tyranny from the apostolic times. 



Ministers from Europe. 71 

The peculiar circumstances which surrounded Eoger Wil- 
liams, have inscribed his name high on the rolls of fame 
as a great benefactor of the human race. But, long be- 
fore the time of Williams, multiplied thousands of un- 
flinching Baptists patiently suffered, and poured forth 
their blood in maintenance of the same boon of heaven — 
religious liberty. 

And why is it that the illustrious names of these mighty 
hosts of Baptist martyrs who perished in filthy dungeons, 
wandered in lonely exile amidst mountain snows and des- 
erts wild, or embraced the martyr's stake amidst the curl- 
ing flames which consumed their bodies, are left to moulder 
in the dark tomb of forgetfulness, while the name of Wil- 
liams, one of the founders, not of the Baptists, but of 
Rhode Island colony, is exalted to the highest pinnacle of 
denominational fame ? Why, I ask, is his name held up 
as the founder of Baptist denomination in America ? Is 
it because he embraced the Baptist doctrine of "soul 
liberty?" So did George Washington, with many of our 
revolutionary sires, who were not Baptists. And as well 
might it be claimed that Washington was the founder of 
the Baptist denomination in America ! Especially, if he 
had received baptism from Gen. Green, Gates, or some 
one else having no connection with the Baptists, then this 
would have constituted tim the father and founder of the 
Baptist denomination in America ! 

The illustrious Patrick Henry was the friend and de- 
fender of persecuted Baptists of Virginia ; and he, as fully 
as Roger Williams, embraced the doctrine of "soul lib- 
erty "j why not constitute him the founder of the Baptist 
denomination in Virginia ! 

No : there is a purpose to serve in thus exalting Roger 



72 American (Baptists. 

Williams. It is to make the impression on the minds of 
the multitude that "Williams was the founder of the Bap- 
tist denomination in this country, and thereby bring the 
Baptists on a par with the denominations, or societies, 
which have an admitted human origin and founder. 

We have grouped together the names of twenty Baptist 
ministers, who crossed the Atlantic ocean and planted 
the standard of the Cross in the American deserts, so that 
the wilderness has been made to blossom as the rose. 
They organized Baptist churches in Rhode Island, Mas- 
sachusetts, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
and the Carolinas ; and from these, like flowing streams, 
the denomination has spread over the mighty West. I 
am thoroughly satisfied that the most obscure of these 
early ministers named has as good claim to be canonized 
as the founder of the Baptists in America, as Roger Wil- 
liams. Our connection with the European churches is so 
strongly developed that, besides the multitude of ministers 
who emigrated, vast numbers of private members were 
lettered off, and emigrated to this country, and formed 
an important element in the organization of our early 
churches. And, as we have already seen, one church, now 
the Welsh Tract, emigrated from Wales to this country in 
her organized capacity. This church is now located in 
the State of Delaware. She became the " prolific mother," 
that sent out many ministers and colonies to form churches. 
The Welsh-Neck church, in South Carolina, was formed 
of members of this old mother church. Benedict himself, 
so far from teaching that Roger Williams was the founder 
of the Baptist denomination in America, upon the ques- 
tion of our origin, says : " The Welsh Baptists began to 
emigrate to this country in very early times, and by them 



Ministers fro:?: Europe. 73 

some of our oldest and well organized churches were 
planted; order, intelligence, and stabil- 
lty marked their operations ; and the num- ^ r ' 

ber of Baptist communities which have 
branched out from these Welsh foundations — the number 
of ministers and members who have sprung from Cambro- 
British ancestors, and the sound, salutary, and efficient 
principles which by them have been diffused among the 
Baptist population in this country, is beyond the concep- 
tion of most of our people. We shall see, when we come 
to the history of the American Baptists, that settlements 
were formed in very early times by this people, which 
became the center of Baptist operations in Massachusetts, 
Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Vir- ■ 
ginia, and South Carolina." 

We have now seen from all the light on this subject, 
that the Baptist Church succession is not interrupted or 
broken off by the Roger Williams affair; but that the 
Baptist churches of America have descended regularly 
from the Welsh and English Baptists, whose history, as 
we shall see, extends through the German Baptists and 
Waldenses to the apostolic times. 

Instead of Roger Williams having anything to do with 
the origin of the Baptists of this country, it turns out that 
he never became a Baptist, only in part ; and that no 
Baptist in the world is known to have received baptism 
by succession from him.* The foregoing facts show that 
the Baptists of Rhode Island had their origin from the 
English and Welsh Baptists, through the ministry of John 
Clarke, Thomas Griffith, Gregory Dexter, and others ; that 
the early Baptists of Massachusetts had their origin, also. 



74 American (Baptists. 

from the Welsh and English Baptists, through the min- 
istry of John Miles, John Emblem, and others; that 
the Pennsylvania Baptists had their origin from Wales 
and England, through the ministry of Morgan Edwards, 
Samuel Jones, Abel Morgan, Hugh Davis, and others ; 
that the Virginia Baptists had their origin mainly from 
the English Baptists, through the ministry of Robert Nor- 
din, Richard Jones, Casper Mintz, and others ; and that 
the North and South Carolina Baptists had their origin 
from the English and Welsh Baptists, through the minis- 
try of Caleb Evans, from Wales, and missionaries from 
the Philadelphia Association, with emigrants from the 
Virginia Baptists. From these early centers of Baptist 
operations in the Atlantic States, the tide of Baptist emi- 
gration has flowed westward, till the voice of the Baptist 
ministry is heard among the savages of the far West, and 
even on the shores of the Pacific ocean. 

Especially, in Kentucky, do we find the descendants of 
the Virginia Baptists. Of these pioneers, might be men- 
tioned the names of the Craigs, the Wallers, and others, 
who had the honor to preach Jesus Christ through the 
iron bars of their prisons in Virginia. No Baptist need 
be ashamed of his denominational ancestors who, in the 
infancy of the American colonies, came from England 
and Wales, and some from other countries, and planted 
the tree of civil and religious Hberty in the New World, 
where they finally succeeded in enstamping these cher- 
ished principles on the American Government, and have 
thereby been the means of giving religious liberty to a 
continent. It will be well for Baptists to be ever mind- 
ful of the cost at which soul-liberty has been purchased 



American (Baptists. 



.0 



to this country ; and while this boon of heaven remains 
ours, we should improve the golden opportunity of fixing 
the same principles in the hearts of the masses of man- 
kind. We should work while it is called to-day. 



70 English (Baptists. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ENGLISH BAPTISTS. 

1. The English Baptists did not originate with John 

Smith. 

2. The English Baptists are descended from the German 

Baptists. 

Section I. — The English baptists did not orig- 
inate WITH JOHN SMITH. 

At the outset we found the Baptists of America dis- 
tinguished from all other denominations by certain lead- 
ing peculiarities, numbering between one and two millions 
of members ; and pushing the victories of the Cross from 
Maine to Western Texas ; from the Atlantic to the Pacific 
ocean ; from the Eastern States to the far Western States 
and Territories of the Pacific sloped 

They are the most intensely aggressive and powerful 
denomination on the continent. We found them untram- 
meled by fines, and unfettered by imprisonments, with no 
ecclesiastical task-masters over them to apply the cruel 
scourge, or to consume them to ashes for their supposed 
heresies. 

Notwithstanding, the Baptist doctrine of soul-liberty 
has so completely permeated every department of society 
(whether civil or religious), that Baptists are now allowed 
to worship God under their own vine and fig-tree, and 
none dares, legally, to molest or make them afraid ; yet, 
the very name Baptist, is odious to a large number of re- 



English (Baptists not from John Smith. 77 

ligionists, who seem to feel fully authorized to pour out 
their vials of wrath upon Baptists, in denunciations, mis- 
representing their doctrine, and perverting their history. 
And in the Baptists is verified the prediction of our Sa- 
vior : " Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name's 
sake." 

In following up the Baptist succession, it has been fully 
shown that their historic chain has neither been disturbed 
by the secession of the " Hard-Shell" Baptists, nor the 
apostacy of the Campbellites ; and it has been abundantly 
shown that the Roger Williams affair has not even pro- 
duced a ripple upon the flowing stream of Baptist suc- 
cession. 

The Atlantic Cable of succession connecting the Bap- 
tists of Europe and America, is composed of numerous 
cords in the persons of Baptist ministers, members, and 
even churches, which emigrated to this country. How 
grand and poetic the occurrence of a .Baptist church 
leaving their native homes in Wales, with all the endear- 
ing ties of kindred and friends, to undertake the danger- 
ous experiment of a voyage across the Atlantic ocean to 
the then wilderness of America, to plant the standard of 
a pure Christianity among the savages of the New World. 

Poets and statesmen have united to swell the sounding 
praises of the May Flower and its cargo of Pilgrims, who 
only fled from persecution to become themselves the bitter 
persecutors of the hated Baptists and Quakers. But, 
what bard, historian, or statesman, is kind enough to 
give the name, mark the course, and record the incidents 
of the voyage of that favored vessel, which conveyed the 
Welsh Tract church from the shores of Europe across 
the briny deep, to find a home in the deep, tangled forests 



78 English (Baptists. 

of America, where they might unfurl the banner of reli- 
gious liberty, which should never be stained by the foul 
blot of persecution? Or, who can furnish the history of 
that ship which bore the heroic John Clarke from London 
to the American shores? Must it be left to ocean winds 
and waves to sing the praises of these pioneers of the Bap- 
tist denomination in America? Perchance these favored 
vessels were guarded in their perilous voyages by angelic 
legions, who have treasured up in the archives of heaven 
the details of the adventures and sufferings of the mem- 
bers of the " sect " which is every-where spoken against. 
We find the name of the vessel in which the Welsh Tract 
church sailed, preserved by Davis in his History of the 
Welsh Baptists. Mr. Davis says: "In the year 1701, he 

(Thomas Griffiths) and fifteen of the mem- 
vis is. e s k erg o £ ^ ie church went to America in the 
Bapt.j p. 72. 

same vessel. They formed themselves 

into a church at Milford, in the county of Pembroke, 
South Wales, and Thomas Griffiths became their pastor 
in the month of June, 1701. They embarked on board 
the ship James and Mary, and on the 8th day of Septem- 
ber following, they landed at Philadelphia. The brethren 
there treated them courteously, and advised them to settle 
about Penepeck. Thither they went, and there continued 
about a year and half. During that time twenty-one per- 
sons joined them, but finding it inconvenient to abide 
there, they purchased land in the county of Newcastle, and 
gave it the name of Welsh Tract, where they built a meet- 
ing-house, and Thomas Griffiths labored among them as 
their pastor till he died, on the 25th of July, 1725, aged 
eighty years." How deeply interesting must have been the 
church meetings of this Baptist church when they gathered 



English (Baptists not from John Smith. 79 

for the worship of God, from time to time, as they sailed on 
the bosom of the mighty deep, and rode the boisterous waves 
of the stormy ocean. And w T hen first they met in church 
meetings in the wilds of Pennepeck and Welsh Tract, sur- 
rounded by savage beasts and still more savage Indians, how 
solemn must have been their devotions. In ascending the 
stream of Baptist succession, we have passed from the scenes 
of persecution, fines, imprisonments, and stripes, in Virginia 
and Massachusetts, up to the planting the first American 
churches ; and from thence across the broad Atlantic back 
to the mountain fastnesses of Wales, and the Baptist 
churches of England. But where did the English Bap- 
tists originate ? We are told by some, who profess to be 
our friends, that the English Baptists originated with one 
John Smithy who baptized himself and others; and thus 
originated the Baptists of England. And here, they tell 
us that the Baptist chain of succession is broken. 

Mr. Thomas Wall shows his aversion of Baptists by 
the following statement : " One John Smith, being more 
desperately wicked than others, baptized 
himself, and then he baptized others, and ™ s ys , j' ^' 
from this man the English Anabaptists 
have successively received their new administration of 
baptism on men and women only." 

Is it a fact, that the Baptists of England originated, as 
charged, from John Smith the Sebaptist? Instead of 
this, it will be seen that John Smith was never an English 
Baptist in his life. As to the dispute, whether John 
Smith baptized himself or not, this has no bearing on the 
question of the rise of the English Baptists. The English 
Baptists have been fearfully misrepresented by their adver- 
saries, who have delighted, it appears, to dip their pens 



80 English (Baptists. 

in the "juice of gall" when writing concerning the hated 

Anabaptists. Crosby, the historian, remarks on this point : 

" Notwithstanding so much which has 

Crosby s Ms. Eng. \y een sa id, and much more which might 

III v 48 ' " h ave been sa ^^ i n f avor °f the English 
Baptists, yet there is hardly any party or 
denomination of Christians that have been so basely mis- 
represented, and unkindly treated in the Avorld, as they. 
Whenever there has been any persecution, they, if any in 
those countries, have been sure to feel the hottest part of 
it. The books written against them are not only very nu- 
merous, but commonly filled with foolish and scandalous 
stories, to render them odious; and the histories of this 
people, that are yet extant, are, for the most part, such as 
have been published by their greatest adversaries." And 
from all the developments in the case, the se-baptism of 
John Smith is one of those silly stories circulated by the 
enemies of Baptists. Mr. Ivimey says, on this question : 
" There is no doubt but this silly charge 
Ivimey' s His. Eng. wag fabricated by his enemies; and it is 
^5 "' ' an astonishing instance of credulity, that 

writers of eminent talents have contrib- 
uted to perpetuate the slander." It is now pretty well 
settled that John Smith received his baptism like Soger 
Williams ; viz : he and one of his companions are sup- 
posed to have baptized each other, and then the rest of the 
company. With us it is of little consequence whether 
Smith was baptized by himself or one of his unbap- 
tized company; for in neither case could his baptism be 
valid. I have gathered the following facts in regard to 
John Smith and his company: — First. John Smith was a 
minister of the established Church of England. Second. 



English (Baptists not from John Smith. 81 

About the year 1606, Mr. Smith led a company of ex- 
iles — Separatists or Brownists — from England to Am- 
sterdam, in Holland. Third. He here united with the 
English church of Brownists, under the pastorship of Mr. 
Ainsworth. Fourth. A difficulty occurred in Mr. Ains- 
worth's church, on account of John Smith's opposition to 
infant baptism, which resulted in the exclusion of Smith 
and his party from said church. Fifth. John Smith and 
his party proceeded to administer baptism, and to the for- 
mation of a church. There is no evidence that Smith 
baptized himself, but it is probable that one of his com- 
pany baptized him. Sixth. John Smith and a part of 
his company soon became dissatisfied with their rash pro- 
ceedings, upon which a difficulty arose between them and 
the majority of the church, on account of which Smith 
and his party were excluded. Thus, it appears that John 
Smith was excluded from this " Baptist church " of which 
he was the founder. Of this, Mr. Evans, the historian, 
says : " It is admitted, on all hands, that, 
from some cause or other, the church over ■^ am f , t 77 V 2 of" 
which Smith and Helwys presided was 
divided, but the cause of division is not so manifest. 
Smith, with some twenty-four persons, was excluded from 
the church, and these sought communion w T ith one of the 
Mennonite churches in the city." 

. Seventh. Mr. Smith repudiated his own baptism and 
church organization as invalid, and, with his party, sought 
admission into one of the Mennonite churches at Amster- 
dam, and was received after making the following confes- 
sion : " The names of the English wKo ^ , ^ , ^ 

te . Evans Early En. 

confess this their error, and repent of it, Bapt., vol. I, p. 
viz: that they undertook to baptize them- 209 ; also, p. 244. 



82 



English ^Baptists. 



selves, contrary to the order appointed by Christ, and who 
now desire, on this account, to be brought back to the true 
Church of Christ as quickly as may be suffered. 

We unanimously desire that this, our wish, should be 
signified to the church. 



NAMES OF MEN. 

" Hugh Bromhead, 
Jarvase Neville, 
John Smyth, 
Thomas Canadyne, 
Edward Hankin, 
John Hardy, 
Thomas Pygott, 
Francis Pygott, 
Robert Stanley, 
Alexander Fleming, 
Alexander Hodgkins, 
John Grindall, 
Solomon Thompson, 
Samuel Halton, 
Thomas Dolphin. 



NAMES OP WOMEN. 

Ann Bromhead, 
Jane Southworth, 
Mary Smyth, 
Joan Halton, 
A lis Arnfield, 
Isabel Thomson, 
Margaret Stanley, 
Mary Grindall, 
Mother Pygott, 
Alis Pygott, 
Margaret Pygott, 
Betteris Dickinson, 
Mary Dickinson, 
Ellyn Paynter, 
Alis Parsons, 
Joane Briggs, 
Jane Argan." 



The above confession may also be found in Latin, on 

page 244 of Evans' Early Eng. Bap. His., Vol. I. 

Eighth. After Mr. Smith and his party were "cast 

out " from his own church, and confessed 
Evans' Early Enq. ±1 . . ,,. /» ,i -i 

B IT 209 *keir error m setting up tor themselves, 

on their humble petition, they were re- 
ceived into a Mennonite church, whose "mode of bap- 
tism was by sprinkling or affusion." 

Ninth. Not long after this, 1610, John Smith died in 
Holland. He never returned to England. He never 



English (Baptists not from John Smith. 88 

belonged to any English Baptist church; neither did he 
ever belong to a legitimate Baptist church at all. 

Tenth: Mr. Helwys, the early companion of Smith, 
returned to England with a few of the remnant of Mr. 
Smith's company, in 1611 or 1612. This was the second 
division in the John Smith church, which had excluded 
its founder. 

Eleventh. The remnant of the John Smith church left 
in Amsterdam, united with the Mennonite church in 1615, 
and thus became extinct. 

Twelfth. After the return of Helwys to London, he 

formed a church, which is claimed as the 

first General Baptist church in England. J os ^ s , ?' It?' 
r b BapL, vol.1, p.270. 

His labors, however, were not attended 

with very great success. And admitting it to be true that 
this Helwys church w 7 as the first church in England 
called General Baptists, this does not prove that the Gen- 
eral Baptists of England originated with this church. His- 
tory develops the fact that even the General Baptists of 
England did not, as a class, receive their succession and 
baptism either from John Smith or Mr. Helwys. 

How strange that the mania of prejudice should have 
ever conceived the idea of constituting John Smith the 
founder of the English Baptists ! 

This unfortunate man desired to know and practice the 
truth. In his flight from Babylon, he left the Episco- 
palians and joined the Brownists, who excluded him for 
opposing their traditions. He then proceeded to admin- 
ister baptism and organize his society, w r hich some histo- 
rians call a Baptist church, from which he was also soon 
excluded. And he, with his party, denied his baptism 
and church organization, professed repentance, sought ad- 



I 



84 English (Baptists. 

mission, and was received into a Mennonite church, which, 
according to Mr. Evans, was not a Baptist church at all. 
And yet our adversaries will point to John Smith as the 
founder of the English Baptists ! 

I now close this section on the Smith affair, with the 

testimony of Mr. Crosby, the historian, as follows : " If 

he (John Smith) were guilty of what they 

rosys is. ng. c k ar g e him with, 'tis no blemish on the 
Bapt., vol. /, p. 99. _ & . ' 

English Baptists; who neither approved 

of any such method, nor did they receive their baptism 

from him." 

Here is the testimony of the English Baptist historian, 

who affirms that the English Baptists did not receive their 

baptism from Smith. The English Baptists are certainly 

as well qualified to tell their own origin as any others. 



Section II. — The English baptists are descended 

FROM THE GERMAN BAPTISTS. 

We now come to the direct question — " Where did the 
English Baptists originate?" Historians admit that per- 
sons holding Baptist views, have existed in various parts 
of England and Wales from very early times. This may 
be seen from the proclamations and edicts of kings against 
the hated "Anabaptists." The same is shown by Davis, 
in his History of the Welsh Baptists; and by Crosby, 
Orchard, and Evans, in their histories of English Baptists. 

It is an egregious mistake to suppose that the English 
Baptists had their rise since the Eeformation of the six- 
teenth century. But, owing to the fierce and continued 
persecutions waged against them, they were accustomed, 
as much as possible, to conceal themselves from public 



English (Baptists from Germany. 85 

view. They frequently met in private houses, or barns, 
and even in the thick forest in the dead of night, for the 
worship of God ; but whenever they were detected by the 
vigilance of Papal spies, they were seized and delivered 
over to the vengeance of the secular arm. And from the 
fact that all their books and records were diligently sought 
and burned by their enemies, we have but little material 
for history, except the prejudiced statements and edicts of 
their enemies. We are, however, able to furnish many 
instances of the emigration of German Baptists to England 
in these early times. Many of the early Baptists of Eng- 
land were called Lollards. 

Mr. Crosby, the historian, says : " In the time of King 
Edward the Second, about the year 1315, 

Walter Lollard, a German preacher, a man Gros W* Hls - En 9- 
„ xl TJT , 7 Baptists, vol. II. 

oi great renown among the Waldenses, ^ ^ 

came into England ; he spread their doc- 
trines very much in these parts, so that afterward they 
went by the name of Lollards" 

That these Lollards w r ere Baptists, who had their de- 
scent through the German Baptists, from 
the ancient Waldenses, is shown by Mr. ^^?* n f ng ' 
Orchard. "The Lollards' Tower," in ° p "' • 
which these witnesses for Christ suffered, still stands in 
London, as a monument of Papal cruelty toward these 
ancient English Baptists. Of the Baptists of England, 
" Bishop Burnet says: ' At this time (Anno 1549) there 
were many Anabaptists in several parts 
of England. They were generally. Ger- Cro f y > \° 1 ' Ij 
mans, whom the revolutions there had 
forced to change their seats/ M In this w r e have the testi- 
mony of Burnet, that the early English Baptists, called 



86 English (Baptists. 

Anabaptists, were from Germany, and were numerous, 
long before the John Smith affair, in Holland. In the 
year 1538, King Henry VIII., issued a proclamation 
against the Anabaptists (Baptists) and others; and in 
the same year, Archbishop Cranmer received a commis- 
sion "to inquire after Anabaptists, to proceed against 
them, to restore the penitent, to burn 
ros y, , their books, and to deliver the obstinate 

p. GO. 

to the secular arm." And of this time, 
" Mr. Fuller tells us, ' that in this year, a match being 

made by the Lord CromwelPs contriv- 
70 *y> vo • > ance, between King Henry and the Lady 

Anne of Cleve, Dutchmen flocked faster 
than formerly into England, and soon after began to 
broach their strange opinions, being branded with the 
general name of Anabaptists. These Anabaptists/ he 
adds, /for the main, are but Donatists, new dipt; and 
this year their name first appears in our English Chroni- 
cles. I read/ says he, ' that four Anabaptists, three men 
and one woman, all Dutch, bare faggots at PauVs cross ; 
and three days after, a man and a woman of their sect, 
were burnt in Smithfield/ " 

This is the testimony of Thomas Fuller, a historian of 
the Church of England, that Dutch Baptists (Anabap- 
tists) flocked into England in the year 1538, in the reign 
of Henry VIII., long before the time of John Smith. 

But we have still more direct testimony concerning 
the succession of the more modern English Baptists, from 
whom the Baptists of America descended. In the year 
1633 a large number of Pedobaptists, belonging to the 
Independents, became convinced of the correctness of Bap- 
tist principles. They were puzzled at first as to the best 



English (Baptists from Germany. 87 

method of obtaining valid baptism. They appointed one 
of their number, Richard Blunt, to visit Holland and 
there receive baptism from a church which was known to 
be in the regular succession from the ancient Waldenses. 
Mr. Crosby introduces the testimony of William Kiffin as 
follows : " This agrees with an account given of the mat- 
ter in an ancient manuscript, said to be 
written by Mr. William Kiffin, who lived ^ s ^Jf 11 ^ 

, . .. .. _ JLUjL-.LU.Zj S6G &lSOj 

in those times, ana was a leader among Tvimey vol. I p. 
those of that persuasion. 143 ; NeaVs His. 

This relates, that several sober and F ur y *& H P« 

in . . ,1 361 ; Orchard. 

pious persons belonging to the congrega- t , ' 2fi0 ' 

tions of the dissenters about London, were 
convinced that believers were the only proper subjects of 
baptism, and that it ought to be administered by immer- 
sion or dipping the whole body into the water, in resem- 
blance of a burial and resurrection, according to Colos. ii : 
12, and Rom. vi: 4. That they often met together to 
pray and confer about this matter, and consult what 
methods they should take to enjoy this ordinance in its 
primitive purity : That they could not be satisfied about 
any administrator in England to begin this practice; be- 
cause, though some in this nation rejected the baptism of 
infants, yet they had not, as they knew of, revived the 
ancient custom of immersion. But, hearing that some in 
the Netherlands practiced it, they agreed to send over one 
Mr. Richard Blunt, who understood the Dutch language : 
That he went accordingly, carrying letters of recommend- 
ation with him, and was kindly received both by the 
church there, and Mr. John Batte, their teacher : That 
upon his return he baptized Mr. Samuel Blacldoch, a 
minister, and these two baptized t\\e rest of their com- 



English (Baptists. 



pany, whose names are in the manuscript to the number 
of fifty-three. 

So that those who followed this scheme did not receive 
their baptism from the aforesaid Mr. Smith, or his congre- 
gation at Amsterdam, it being an ancient congregation of 
foreign Baptists in the low countries to whom they sent." 

Here we have the undisputed historic fact, that the 
Baptists of London were so careful to obtain valid bap- 
tism that they delegated Richard Blunt, formerly a Pedo- 
baptist minister, to visit a regular Baptist church, at 
Amsterdam, in Holland, which belonged to the old Wal- 
densean succession. And after the baptism of Richard 
Blunt by John Batte, by the authority of said church, he 
returned to London and baptized Samuel Blacklock, and 
they baptized the rest of the company, to the number 
of fifty-three members ; and thus was formed a Baptist 
church, which was afterward recognized as a Particular 
Baptist church. And from this influential church has 
flowed the stream of succession down to the present time. 

We have now seen that the English Baptists, instead 
of originating with John Smith, have descended from the 
Dutch and German Baptists, who descended from the 
ancient Waldenses. In following up the succession of 
Baptists, we have found them in England, suffering almost 
incredible hardships and persecutions under the bloody 
reigns of James and his father, Charles II. In these fear- 
ful times it was no light matter to become a Baptist. It 
involved the renunciation of the grandeur and honors ot 
the world, and to become the objects of Papal and Pro- 
testant cruelties. They were the faithful martyrs who 
were hunted down by the blood-hounds, in human form, 
of the established Church, as though they had been wild 



English (Baptists from Germany. 89 

beasts. And about this time many of them, fleeing from 
persecution, emigrated to America. And, also, we have 
seen that, in the time of Henry "VIII., and in more remote 
periods, the Dutch Baptists bore witness for Christ in 
England at the sacrifice of their lives. And it has been 
shown that companies of Dutch Baptists flocked into 
England, from time to time, and propagated their prin- 
ciples long before the London Dissenters embraced Bap- 
tist principles, and sent Richard Blunt to the continent 
to receive baptism. But it is not our purpose to attempt 
to follow up all the chains of succession which connect 
the English Baptists with the old Waldensean Baptists 
of Germany. At the present, I am only tracing the most 
direct line which connects the English with the German 
Baptists. 

And for the present we take our leave of the English 
Baptists ; and from the British Isles, cross the North Sea 
to the Netherlands. And here we find the Baptists, with 
the same heaven-born principles, amidst the frowning 
monarchies and despotisms of continental Europe, bearing 
the same unflinching testimony for religious liberty which 
they have borne in England and America. It will be re- 
membered that in the term German Baptists, we include 
the Dutch Baptists also. As already intimated, many of 
the German Baptists had, from time to time, emigrated to 
England ; but they were so sorely persecuted that they 
were sometimes driven to other countries, or compelled 
to secrete themselves from the view of the public. For 
long years, it was the policy of the English Baptists to 
avoid, as much as possible, the notice of the authorities 
of government; and in order to this, they studiously 
avoided any communications with the Pedobaptists of all 



90 English (Baptists. 



classes; because the Protestants were almost as bitter in 
their persecutions against the English Baptists as were the 
Catholics. Taking this vievf of the condition of the Bap- 
tists of England at this time, it is no wonder that these 
Pedobaptists were not well posted in the affairs of the Bap- 
tists of England. Their want of knowledge on this point, 
is no evidence that there were no true Baptists in England 
at this time. Though some of the English Baptist histo- 
rians were of opinion that the sending to the continent to 
get valid baptism was unnecessary, yet it was their duty 
to do this, if they knew of no Scriptural administrator 
nearer. No one can plead the authority of the Scriptures 
for " alien " baptisms. It is certainly much safer to be 
guided by the example of Jesus Christ and the apostles, in 
this as all other matters of religious duty. 



(Baptist Succession. 91 



CHAPTER V. 

GERMAN BAPTISTS. 

1. The Germ ax Baptists did not Originate with the Mun- 

ster Riot. 

2. The German Baptists Descended from the Ancient Wai> 

denses. 

Section I. — The German baptists did not origin- 
ate WITH THE MUNSTER RIOT, 

It appears that in every age, from the time of Christ, 
the Baptist denomination has been made the seape-goat 
to bear the sins of the world. Almost every crime known 
to earth, has been laid to their charge. They are consid- 
ered the enemies of governments, ringleaders of sedition 
and revolution, and obstinate ^nd incurable heretics. It 
has been supposed that earthquakes, wars, famines, and 
pestilences, have been sent upon the human family on 
account of the crimes of the Baptists. And it is now 
gravely stated, by a certain class of " charitable " writers, 
who have not the power, as did their fathers, to imprison 
and burn Baptists, that the Baptist denomination original 
ted with the Ilunster riot in Germany, about the year 1525. 
And this class of men are generally very clamorous about 
Baptist " Close Communion." But did the Baptists orig- 
inate with the madmen of Munster? Upon an investiga- 
tion of the history of the Munster affair, the following facts 
are developed: 

1. The Munster rebellion did not arise from any relig- 



92 German (Baptists. 

ious, or denominational, opinions whatever, but in order 
to resist the oppressions of the despotic governments of 
Germany. Of the miserable condition of this wretched 
people, Mr. Robinson, the historian, says : " The condi- 
tion of the peasants in Germany, in the year twenty-four 

[1524], was deplorable, if there be any- 

xi« 4.11 • • l x' j? j. Robinson's Eccl. 

thing to deplore in a deprivation oi most ^ r ^ 

of the rights and liberties of rational crea- 
tures. The feudal system, that execration in the eyes of 
every being that merits the name of man, had been estab- 
lished in early ages in Germany, in all its rigor and hor- 
ror. It had been planted with a sword reeking with 
human gore, in the night of barbarism, when cannibals 
drank the warm blood of one enemy out of the skull of 
another, and it had shot its venomous fibers every way, 
rioted itself in every transaction ; in religion, in law, in 
diversions, in everything secular and sacred, so that the 
wretched rustics had only one prospect for themselves and 
all their posterity — one torrid prospect of everlasting 
slavery." 

And of the effort of this unfortunate people to break 
the iron yoke of tyranny, the author of the Religious 
Encyclopedia says : " Munzer, and his associates, in the 

year 1525, put themselves at the head of a 

t j i i , Religious Encyc, 

numerous army, and declared war against iL J ' 

u!l laws, governments, and magistrates of 
every kind, under the chimerical pretext that Christ him- 
self was now to take the reins of all governments into 
his hands : but this seditious crowd was routed and dis- 
persed by the Elector of Saxony, and other Princes, and 
Munzer, their leader, put to death." The Religious Eneyc, 
same author adds : " It must be acknowl- p. 77. 



The Munster (Riot 93 

edged that the true rise of the insurrections of this period 
ought not to be attributed to religious opinions." 

2. The prime movers of the Munster riot were Pedo- 
baptists. 

Mr. Benedict says : " It is certain that the disturbances 
in the very city of Munster, were begun by a Pedobap- 
tist minister, of the Lutheran persuasion, whose name 
was Bernard Rotman, or Rothman ; that he was assisted 
in his endeavors by other ministers of the same persua- 
sion ; and that they began to stir up tumults, that is, teach 
revolutionary principles, a year before the Anabaptist 
i ringleaders/ as they are called, visited the place. These 
things the Papists knew, and they failed not to improve 
them to their own advantage. They uniformly insisted 
that Luther's doctrine led to rebellion, that his disciples 
were the prime movers of the insurrections, and they also 
asserted that a hundred and thirty thousand Lutherans 
perished in the rustic war." 

3. If the testimony of their enemies is entitled to credit, 
the Munsterites, in their practices, very much resemble 
the Mormons of our day. And it would be as legitimate 
to charge the Baptists with the Mormon abominations, as 
with the excesses of the frenzied German peasants of the 
sixteenth century. 

4. The most of these insurgents were of no religion. 
They entered the rebellion as men driven to desperation, 
in order to gain their independence. But it is freely ad- 
mitted that some Catholics, some Lutherans, and some so- 
called Anabaptists, were engaged in this struggle for free- 
dom. 

5. These deluded fanatics were finally destroyed in 
battle. 



94 German (Baptists. 

Of their destruction Mr. Orchard says: " These op- 
pressed men were consequently met by 
His Bap., vol I, their lordswith a SW ord, instead of re- 
p. 356. . ? 

dress ; being defeated, they were slaugh- 
tered and reproached — the invariable results and concom- 
itants of defeat ; Munzer, their friend and chief, was put 
to death. 

6. It is extremely unjust, therefore, to censure the Bap- 
tist denomination for the improprieties of some of its 
members who were, or may have been, seduced into fanat- 
icism and turbulence. Of the unjustness of these asper- 
sions, Mr. Evans says : " Historians of a certain class, and 

partisan writers, have been fond of desig- 
Evani Early Enq. , . , A i , . , , -, , i . 

B IT If na ^ m g as Anabaptists/ and gathering 

around us all those elements of social dis- 
order and fearful profligacy which the scenes of Munster, 
and the mad vagaries of Stork and his brethren, ever sug- 
gest. Hard have they labored to identify us with these 
men. We are not careful to answer them in this matter. 
The men that shrunk not from the severe privations of 
the jail, and the more terrible punishment of the stake, 
were not affected much by a name. It answered the pur- 
pose of their adversaries for a time; but they were blind 
to the logical consequences of their own position. They 
forgot, in the fullness of their malice, the retribution to 
which they were exposing themselves. To trace the sad 
events which resulted from the efforts to secure social 
freedom, to the doctrines that the individual consciousness 
of God's claim on man's affections, and that the Christian 
profession is only made by an immersion of the individual 
in water, i in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of 
the Holy Ghost '; is only to lay open their own system to 



The Munster (Riot. 95 

the most crushing retort. It were just as easy to demon- 
strate that the world has been the vast theater on which 
Pedobaptists have perpetrated crimes at which humanity 
shudders, and over which piety and virtue must weep, as 
that the Anabaptists, as a body, were found steeped in 
crime and reveling in lust." 

Thus it is shown by Mr. Evans that if the Baptists are 
liable to censure, simply because some of the Munster 
fanatics rejected infant baptism, then, on the same princi- 
ples, the Pedobaptists are chargeable with all the crimes 
committed by their Catholic ancestors. For instance, who 
instituted the Inquisition ? Pedobaptists. Who preached 
up the crusades against the ancient Waldenses? Pedo- 
baptists. Who are guilty of the blood of sixty millions of 
the saints for conscience sake ? Pedobaptists. But these 
things are passed over lightly by our accusers; and be- 
cause some deluded Anabaptists of Germany joined in a 
death struggle for liberty, the Baptists, as a denomination, 
are stigmatized as originating the Munster riot! The 
injustice of these charges are shown by Mr. D'Anvers, as 
follows : " That take it for granted, that things were so as 
to matter of fact, that many Anabaptists 
did prove so horribly wicked, as Spanhe- B r 822 
mius, Sleidan, Osiander, and others do 
report, yet how unreasonable and uncharitable would it 
be to render all this people, either in those times or since, 
to be such persons also; and to judge an error in the prin- 
ciple from the error in conversation of some that have 
professed it; for by the same rule may not the purest state 
of the church, both in the Old and New Testament, be 
censured and judged; who had their Chora's, Judas' and 
Diotrephes', among them? But that others that owned 



96 German (Baptists. 

that principle, were men of another spirit, both in that as 
well as former and latter times, you have most ample and 
authentic testimony from their greatest enemies." 

But in no sense can it be stated that the Baptists origin- 
ated with the Munster rebellion. It would be as legiti- 
mate for future historians to contend that the American 
Baptists originated with the Mormon movement as for 
one to affirm that the German Baptists started with the 
Munster movement. It will be seen that the German 
Baptists existed under the name of Anabaptists long be- 
fore this unhappy affair. Mr. Brown, editor of the Re- 
ligious Encyclopedia says: "It is but jus- 
tice to observe, also, that the Baptists in 
Holland, England, and the United States, are to be con- 
sidered as entirely distinct from those seditious and fanat- 
ical individuals above mentioned, as they profess an equal 
aversion to all principles of rebellion on the one hand, and 
of enthusiasm on the other. — Buck's Theol. Dictionary ; 
Milner's Church History ; Robinson's Eccl. Researches; 
Encyclopedia America; Benedict's History of the Bap- 
tists" These writers are too candid to associate the Bap- 
tists with the Munster riot. D' Aubigne, an eminent Pedo- 

baptist historian, says : a On one point it 
Quoted Intro, to , t . ' , 

q -l j iq seems necessary to guard against misap- 
prehension. Some persons imagine that 
the [Munster] Anabaptists of the times of the Reforma- 
tion, and the Baptists of our day, are the same. But they 
are as different as possible." This is the testimony of a 
learned historian, who declares that the Baptists are 
as different as. possible from the Munster Anabaptists. 
Again: we have the testimony of the Royal Encyclo- 
pedia, as quoted by Mr. Graves in the Tri-Lemma. Mr. 



The Munster 'Riot. 97 

Graves says: "This great work, by William H. Hall, 

Esq., with other learned, ingenuous gen- 
Tri-Lemma^.m. ^' _ . T f . -,*L« 

tlenien, was begun in JLonaon, m ±7ob, 

and completed in three large folio volumes. In the article 
1 Anabaptists/ after recounting the excesses of Muntzer, 
Matthias, Borkkoidt, and others, during the sixteenth 
century, in Germany, the Encyclopedia proceeds: 'It is 
to be remarked that the- Baptists, or Mennonites, in Eng- 
land and Holland are to be considered in a very different 
light from the enthusiasts we have been describing ; and 
it appears equally uncandid and invidious to trace up 
their distinguished sentiments, as some of their adversa- 
ries have done, to those obnoxious characters, and then to 
stop, in order, as it were, to associate with it the ideas of 
turbulence and fanaticism, with which it certainly has no 
natural connection. Their coincidence with some of 
those oppressed and infatuated people, in denying baptism 
to infants, is acknowledged by the Baptists, but they dis- 
avow the practice which the appellation of Anabaptist 
implies; and their doctrines seem referable to a more 
ancient and respectable origin. They appear supported by 
history in considering themselves the descendants of the 
Waldenses, who were so grievously oppressed and perse- 
cuted by the despotic heads of the Romish hierarchy/ n 

Reader, take notice : the authors of the Royal Encyclo- 
pedia are positive in their statement that the Baptists have 
no connection with the Munster mob ; but, on the con- 
trary, they affirm that their doctrines seem referable to a 
more ancient and respectable origin. Xo one now, except 
an extremely wicked or ignorant man, will, in the face of 
these historic facts, presume to affirm that the Baptists 
originated with the Munster affair. Again, Mr. Benedict, 



98 German (Baptists. 

speaking of the true Baptists of these times, says : " Their 

peace principles, and those on oaths, cap- 
Ben. His. BapL, . , -, . i , , , ,i i 

124 r ital punishment, etc., were the same be- 

fore the rustic war as afterward ; and may 
be traced down, through the history of the Waldenses 
and other evangelical parties, Ho the remote depths of 
antiquity/ Menno was, indeed, a distinguished teacher 
among the Anabaptists during the whole of his ministry ; 
but Mosheim's account of his gathering up the fragments 
of the society after their dispersion, and re-organizing them 
upon new and better principles, is not at all sustained by 
anything that appears in their own relations. They were 
the same people in policy and practice before Menno came 
among them as afterward. We see them almost daily on 
trial in the criminal courts; and never were a people 
so uniform, and I may say so dauntless, in their religious 
professions, as were the German Anabaptists for the cen- 
tury and a half now under review. The charges against 
them seemed to have been stereotyped by the inquisitors, 
and their answers were uniform as to matters of fact, and 
always mild and explicit; and, as to the men of Munster 
or Amsterdam — for the scenes at both places were often 
referred to — they uniformly answered: 'These were not 
our brethren — we have no fellowship with such men. The 
men of Munster were among yourselves/ or of your party. 
They did not admit, or even intimate, that they went off from 
them, or were ever in their connection. But they bitterly 
complained of having to suffer for the faults of others that 
they knew nothing about, because some of them agreed 
with them in rejecting infant baptism." It may be proper 
to observe here, that the term Mennonites has, in history, 
been applied to different classes of religionists. Menno 



Origin of the German (Baptists, 99 

himself, and the most of the Mennonites of his clay, were 
strict Baptists in their religious views; but the modern 
Mennonites are wholly different : they practice pouring for 
baptism. When I use the term Mennonites, in this work, 
as synonymous with Baptists, I refer to the true Bap- 
tist Mennonites of old. 



Section II. — The German baptists descended from 

THE ANCIENT WALDENSES. 

It is a well-known fact that the Dutch, or German, Bap- 
tists w^ere called "Anabaptists" and Waldenses inter- 
changably. Baptists have ever rejected the term "Ana- 
baptist" as not applicable to themselves. It is derived 
from the Greek words ana, anew or again, and baptizein, 
to immerse or baptize; and means, to baptize anew or 
again. Baptists have ever held, one Lord, one faith, and 
one baptism; and when they baptize those who have re- 
ceived the infant rite, or have been immersed without the 
authority of Jesus Christ, they do not regard it as re- 
baptism, as they regard such performances as invalid — no 
baptism at all. And when, in this work, we speak of the 
Anabaptists of Germany, we do not allude to the Munster 
Anabaptists. 

There is abundance of historic evidence of the fact that 
the people called, by their enemies, "Anabaptists," ex- 
isted in Germany long before the Munster insurrection; 
but how and ivhere did they originate? The witnesses 
already quoted, show that they descended from the ancient 
Waldenses. In thus ascending the stream of Baptist his- 
tory, we have passed unscathed beyond the Munster riot, 
and find the Baptists still grappling with the combined 



100 German (Baptists. 

powers of the world in support of religious liberty, and 
the Bible as their only rule of faith and practice. Of the 
origin of the German Baptists, who were called Menno- 
nites, Mosheim, the historian, says : " It may be observed, 

in the first place, that the Mennonites are 

Mos. Church His., . ,. •, . v *i i ., n 

491 ' not entirely in an error when they boast ot 

their descent from the Waldenses, Petro- 
brusians, and other ancient sects, who are usually consid- 
ered as witnesses of the truth, in times of general dark- 
ness and superstition. Before the rise of Luther and Cal- 
vin, there lay concealed, in almost all the countries of Eu- 
rope, particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and 
Germany, many persons, who adhered tenaciously to the 
following doctrine, which the Waldenses, Wickliffites, and 
Hussites, had maintained, some in a more disguised, and 
others in a more open and public manner, viz: 'That the 
kingdom of Christ, or the visible church which he estab- 
lished upon earth, was an assembly of true and real saints, 
and ought, therefore, to be inaccessible to the wicked and 
unrighteous, and also exempt from all those institutions 
which human prudence suggests to oppose the progress of 
iniquity, or to correct and reform transgressors/ ;; This is 
very important testimony, borne by the learned Mosheim, 
a Lutheran, who was intensely opposed to the Baptists, 
and lived in Gottingen, in Germany. Does he tell us that 
the Mennonites, or " Anabaptists/' originated at Mun- 
ster ? No. He informs us that they existed before the time 
of Luther and Calvin, in almost all the countries of Eu- 
rope. In following up the succession of churches, we have 
now entered upon a period of our history before the Ref- 
ormation of popery in the sixteenth century. Yes ; be- 
fore — long before — the voice of the Wittemburg reformer 



Origin of the German (Baptists. 101 

was heard in the diet of Worms, or John Calvin had 
emerged from the Romish apostacy, the Baptists were 
bearing aloft the blood-stained banner of the Cross in the 
fearful conflict with the Romish Dragon. In speaking 
of the origin of Baptists, Mosheim remarks that, "The 
true origin of that sect which acquired the 
denomination of Anabaptists by their ad- ' "' 
ministering anew the rite of baptism to those who came 
over to their communion, and derived that of Mennonites 
from the famous man to whom they owe the greatest part 
of their present felicity, is hid in the depths of antiquity 
and is, of consequence, extremely difficult to be ascer- 
tained." Pursuing the Baptist succession, Mosheim fol- 
lows them to the depths of antiquity, beyond the times of 
Memio and the Munster tragedy. With all of his opposi- 
tion to Baptists, he does not attempt to locate their origin, 
as some do, with Muntzer. It will be remembered that 
the same class of people who were called Baptists in Eng- 
land, and Anabaptists in Germany, were also called Men- 
nonites, not that he was their founder, but because he 
united with them, and became one of their most powerful 
and influential ministers. 

The modern Mennonites are wholly different from the 
ancient Mennonite Anabaptists. For the so-called Men- 
nonites of the present time admit of pouring for baptism, 
while Menno and those old Mennonites were uncompro- 
mising dippers. In proof that the Baptists of England, 
Anabaptists of Germany, and ancient Mennonites, were 
regarded as the same "sect," or denomination, we cite 
the following from Mosheim : " The sectaries in England, 
who reject the custom of baptizing in- Moshtirrfs Ch. 
fants, are not to be distinguished by the Bis., p. 500. 



102 German (Baptists. 



title of Anabaptists, but by that of Baptists. It is, how- 
ever, probable that they derive their origin from the Ger- 
man and Dutch Mennonites, and that, in former times, 
they adopted their doctrine in all its points." 

And speaking of these same Baptists, whom he calls 
Mennonites, Mosheim says that they "are not entirely in 
an error when they boast of their descent from the Wal- 
denses, Petrobrusians, and other ancient sects, who are 
usually considered as witnesses of the truth, in the times 
of general darkness and superstition." And the same 
has already been proved in the former section, where it is 
recorded in the Royal Encyclopedia, that the Baptists 

APPEAR SUPPORTED BY HISTORY IN CONSIDERING 
THEMSELVES THE DESCENDANTS OF THE WALDENSES, 
WHO WERE SO GRIEVOUSLY OPPRESSED AND PERSE- 
CUTED BY THE DESPOTIC HEADS OF THE EOMISH HIE- 
RARCHY. 

In confirmation of the fact that the Dutch and German 
Baptists sprang from the original Waldenses, we here in- 
troduce a statement from the report from the learned com- 
mittee appointed by the King of Holland, to prepare a 
history of the Dutch Reformed Church, in which they 
devote one chapter to the Baptists. The author of the 
Encyclopedia describes this committee as follows : " An 

' Account of the Origin of the Dutch 
ewous mcyc, g a p^ s j. g ^ or Mennonites, was published 

at Breda, in 1819, by Dr. Ypeij, Pro- 
fessor of Theology, at Groningen, and the Rev. I. J. Der- 
mout, Chaplain to the King of the Netherlands, learned 
Pedobaptists," of the Dutch Reform Church. These 
learned men, appointed by royal authority, and living in 
Holland, having access to the libraries and archives of 



Origin of the German (Baptists. 103 

Germany, have made their report on the origin of the 
Baptists. Do they locate their origin with the Munster 
rebellion ? We have their concluding language, as follows : 

"We have now seen that the Baptists who were for- 
merly called Anabaptists, and, in latter n , „ y 
times, Mennomtes, were the original Wal- 
denses ; and who have long, in the history of the church, 
received the honor of that origin. On this account, the 
Baptists may be considered as the only Christian commu- 
nity which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as 
a Christian society, which has preserved pure the doctrines 
of the Gospel through all ages. The perfectly correct 
external and internal economy of the Baptist denomina- 
tion, tends to confirm the truth, disputed by the Romish 
Church, that the Reformation brought about in the six- 
teenth century, was in the highest degree necessary ; and, 
at the same time, goes to refute the erroneous notion of 
the Catholics, that their communion is the most ancient." 

This testimony is worthy of being embalmed in the 
memory of every lover of truth. It is not the language 
of some "bigoted" Baptist, but the deliberate statement 
of learned Pedobaptist historians after years of investi- 
gation. 

Of their testimony, Newton Brown, editor of Religious 
Encyclopedia, says : " This testimony, from 
the highest official authority in the Dutch 
Reform Church, is certainly a rare instance of liberality 
toward another denomination. It is conceding all the 
Mennonites or Baptists claim. It should be added, that 
they have constantly, but politely, declined the salaries 
which the government of Holland offers to all denomina- 
tions under its authority." 



104 German (Baptists. 

It will not be amiss to emphasize several items which 
have been settled in this important document : 

1. That the Baptists, who were formerly called Anabap- 
tists, and in latter times Mennonites, were the original Wal- 
denses. 

2. That the Baptists may be considered as the only Chris- 
tian community which has stood since the days of the 
apostles. 

3. That the Baptists may be considered as the only Chris- 
tian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the 
Gospel through all ages from the apostles. 

4. And that the Baptist communion is more ancient than 
the Catholics. 

With these incontrovertible facts before us, will the un- 
blushing impudence of his satanic majesty ever again so 
far expose the malice of the pit, as to affirm that the Bap- 
tists originated with the mad proceedings of the Munster 
affair ! 

The learned history, from which this extract in the En- 
cyclopedia was taken, was written in the Dutch language. 
Prof. T. W. Tobey has translated the entire chapter on 
the Baptists from the original. This valuable translation 
may be found in the Southern Baptist Review for 1859. 
This document throws much light on this question. Prof. 
Tobey informs us that the names of the authors of this 
history, are " A. Ypeij and I. J. Dermout ; " and the 
name of their work is, " History of the Netherlands 5 Re- 
formed Church." The work consists in four volumes. 
We will proceed to furnish several quotations from this 
valuable work, written by these learned Pedobaptists, 
who lived in the Netherlands among the people whom 
they describe. This translation does not materially differ 



Origin of the German (Baptists. 105 

from that already quoted from the Encyclopedia, but it 
gives all the chapter on the Baptist question, while the 
other only gives a part. They do not originate the Bap- 
tists with the Munster rebellion. Dr. Ypeij and Prof. 
Dermout say, in their notice of the Baptists, that " these 
Protestants are known in history by the 
name of Anabaptists, and ought, by no .' ' ^ ' 
means, to be considered the same as the 
Baptists." These historians admit that the true Baptists 
were called Anabaptists, but they here speak of " the vile 
Anabaptists." Again, our authors say : " The honest 
Baptists suffered the most severely from this 
prejudice, because they were considered by 
the people to be the same, and were called by the same 
name. The fact that they agreed in their opinions re- 
specting the holy ordinance of baptism, was the unfortu- 
nate occasion of this thing. On this account, the Bap- 
tists in Flanders and in Friesland, suffered the most ter- 
rible persecutions." That the Baptists of those times 
were innocent of these disturbances, is seen, as follows : 
" The Emperor and all his statesmen knew that the Bap- 
tists generally, had, both by word and deed, 
testified that their peace-loving hearts ab- 
horred the seditious conduct of the Anabaptists." And 
these Dutch historians proceed : " How evident it was 
that, although the Baptists appeared to agree 
exactly with the Anabaptists in respect to 7 

the baptismal question, the former entirely disapproved 
of the course pursued by the latter. For it had been, 
and continued to be, a doctrine of the Baptists, that the 
bearing of arms was very unbecoming to a Christian." 
And, in conclusion, we here insert the noted passage 



106 German (Baptists. 

concerning the antiquity of the Baptists, as translated by 
Prof. Tobey. These historians say : " We have now seen 
that the Baptists who, in former times, 
were called Anabaptists, and at a later pe- 
riod Mennonites, were originally Waldenses, who, in the 
history of the Church, even from the most ancient times, 
have received such a well-deserved homage. On this ac- 
count the Baptists may be considered, as of old, the only 
religious community which has continued, from the times 
of the apostles, as a Christian society which has kept pure 
through all ages the evangelical doctrines of religion. The 
uncorrupted inward and outward condition of the Baptist 
community, affords proof of the truth contested by the Rom- 
ish Church of the great necessity of a reformation of relig- 
ion, such as that which took place in the sixteenth century, 
and also a refutation of the erroneous notion of the Roman 
Catholics, that their denomination is the most ancient." 

We have traced a regular succession of Baptists from 
the shores of America to Wales, England, and Germany, 
and to the valleys of the Alps, long before the Munster 
rebellion. We have now entered upon a period of our 
history prior to the Lutheran Reformation. In this pe- 
riod, prior to the year 1520, we find no Lutherans, Epis- 
copalians, Presbyterians, nor Methodists, and, of course, 
no Campbellites. But the Baptist denomination here 
stands alone as the " pillar and ground of the truth," as 
the mighty pyramid of Gospel light, whose apex touches 
heaven, and whose rays light up the dreary pathway of 
the dismal ages upon which we are now entering. 

We have fully established the historic fact that the 
Baptists sprang from the ancient Waldenses; and this leads 
us to the consideration of the next objection. 



(Baptist Succession. 107 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE ANCIENT WALDENSES. 

1. The Name Waldenses. 

2. The Charge of Drs. Miller and Eige against Jones, the 

Historian. 

3. Ancient Waldenses Baptists— Modern Waldenses Pedo- 

baptists. 

4. The Origin of the Waldenses. 

Section I. — The name waldenses. 

The name Waldenses was originally applied to the 
inhabitants of the valleys of the Alps, but, in after times, 
it was applied to that class of Christians, everywhere, 
who embraced the same views with the inhabitants of the 
valleys. This name has sometimes been applied, by the 
Roman Catholics, with such latitude as to embrace all the 
sects which opposed the doctrines of Rome. Therefore, 
in the perusal of the pages of history, we find the term 
Waldenses applied to parties of almost every denomina- 
tional cast. And a failure to observe the proper distinc- 
tions in the use of this name, has lead some historians to 
very incorrect conclusions as regards the doctrine of the 
Waldenses. 

It is claimed by some, that the Waldenses derived their 
name from one Peter Waldo, a merchant of Lyons, who 
lived in the twelfth century. But this position is now 
almost universally abandoned. It is a historic fact, fully 
made out, that the name Waldenses was applied to the 



108 The Ancient Waldenses. 



inhabitants of the valleys, as a religious community, long 

before the time of Peter Waldus. Mr. Jones, the historian, 

says : " It is also proved from their books, 

°^oo lS ' y that they existed as "Waldenses before the 

p. 262. J 

time of Peter Waldo, who preached about 
the year 1160." And upon the same point Mr. Wad- 

dington remarks : " That we may not fall 
WadJingtopCh. ^ th f Moshei who ascribes 

His., p. 353. 1 ' . \ 

tne origin of that sect to an individual 

named Waldus. Peter "Waldus, or Waldensis, a native of 
Lyons, was a layman and a merchant ; but, notwithstand- 
ing the avocations of a secular life, he had studied the real 
character of his church with attention, followed by shame. 
Stung with the spectacle of so much impurity, he aban- 
doned his profession, distributed his wealth among the 
poor, and formed an association for the diffusion of Scrip- 
tural truth. He commenced his ministry about the year 
1180. Having previously caused several parts of the 
Scriptures to be translated into the vulgar tongue, he ex- 
pounded them, with great effect, to an attentive body of 
disciples both in France and Lombardy. In the course 
of his exertions he probably visited the valleys of Pied- 
mont; and there he found a people of congenial spirits. 
They were called Vaudois or Waldenses (men of the val- 
leys) ; and as the preaching of Peter may probably have 
confirmed their opinions and cemented their discipline, 
he acquired and deserved his sirname by his residence 
among them. At the same time, their connection with 
Peter and his real Lyonese disciples established a notion 
of their identity ; and the Vaudois, in return for the title 
which they had bestoyv r ed, received the reciprocal appella- 
tion of Leonists. Such, at least, appears the most proba- 






The Name Waldenses. 109 

ble among many varying accounts. There are some who 
believe the Vaudois to have enjoyed the uninterrupted 
integrity of the faith even from the apostolic ages ; others 
suppose them to have been disciples of Claudius Turin, 
the evangelical prelate of the ninth century. At least it 
may be pronounced, with great certainty, that they had 
been long in existence before the visit of the Lyonese 
reformer." 

It would appear from these accounts that Peter, the 
merchant of Lyons, received the name "Waldus from the 
Waldenses, and not the Waldenses their name from him. 
The same is confirmed by Robinson, as follows : " From 
the Latin i vallis ' came the English ' valley/ the French 
and Spanish c valle/ the Italian i valdeci/ the Low Dutch 
1 velleye/ the Provencal ( vaux, * 6 vaudois/ the Ecclesias- 
tical 'vallenses/ 'valdenses/ 'waldenses/ The words 
simply signify valleys, inhabitants of valleys, and no 
more. 

" It happened that the inhabitants of the valleys of the 

Pyrenees did not profess the Catholic 

faith : it fell out also that the inhabitants ° " cc ' ^ 
7 p. 302. 

of the valleys about the Alps did not em- 
brace it ; it happened, moreover, in the ninth century, that 
one Valdo, a friend and counselor of Berengarius, and a 
man of eminence who had many followers, did not approve 
of the papal discipline and doctrine; and it came to pass, 
about a hundred and thirty years after, that a rich mer- 
chant of Lyons, who was called Valdus, because he received 
his religious notions from the inhabitants of the valleys, 
openly disavowed the Eoman religion, supported many to 
teach the doctrines believed in the valleys, and became the 
instrument of the conversion of oreat numbers. All these 



110 The Ancient Waldenses. 

people were called Waldenses ; and hence it came, to pass 
that some contended they were Manicheans and Arians, 
and others that they were the direct opposite." 

Notwithstanding the name Waldenses originally desig- 
nated the inhabitants of certain Alpine valleys, yet it finally 
became the general name of a large body of Christians 
inhabiting many countries. On this point, Mr. Jones 
remarks : " Such is the view which Rei- 
° ? 24i ' W '' nei ™ s gave of the principles of the Wal- 
denses, about eighty years subsequent to the 
times of Peter Waldo ; and we must understand this de- 
scription as applicable to one general class of Christians, 
scattered throughout the south of France, the valleys of 
the Pyrenean mountains, the valleys of Piedmont, and 
the country of the Milanese, though probably distin- 
guished, in different places, by the different names of 
Puritans or Catharists, Paterines, Arnoldists, Leonists, 
Albigenses or Waldenses, the last of which ultimately be- 
came their more general appellation." 

Mr. Jones further adds : " That the general body of the 

Albigenses received the doctrines of Peter 

Jones' Ch. His., Waldo that these doctrines had no con- 

nection with Manicheism, and that the 
Waldenses and Albigenses were two branches of the same 
sect, inhabiting different countries, each deriving its ap- 
pellation from its local residence." Many other writers 
might be adduced in conformation of the fact that the 
Waldenses received their name originally from the valleys 
of the Alps. But in addition to the general name of 
Waldenses applied to the class of Christians who embraced 
the principles of the original inhabitants of the valleys of 
the Alps, a multitude of local names and nick-names were 



The JVame Waldenses. Ill 

applied to this people. Of these names, Mr. Jones says : 

" In Languedoc, the Catholics affirm that the origin of these 

heretics was recent, and that they derived 

their name of "Vaudois, or Waldenses, 001 

7 p. 2,61, 

from Peter Waldo, one of their barbes or 

preachers, whose immediate followers were called Wal- 
denses. But this was rather the renovation of the name, 
from a particular cause, than its original. Accordingly, it 
extended over that district only in France where Peter 
Waldo preached, for in other districts the people, who 
were branches of the same original sect, as in Dauphine, 
were, from a noted preacher, called Josephists; in Lan- 
guedoc they were called Henricians; and in other prov- 
inces, from Peter Bruys, they were called Petrobusians. 
Sometimes they received their name from their manners, 
as Catharists (Puritans) ; and from the foreign country 
whence it was presumed they had been expelled, they 
were called 'Bulgarians/ or Bougres. In Italy they 
were commonly called Fratricelli, that is, 'men of the 
brotherhood/ because they cultivated brotherly love 
among themselves, acknowledging one another as brethren 
in Christ. Sometimes they were denominated 'Pauli- 
cians/ and, by corruption of the word 'Publicans/ consid- 
ering them as sprung from that ancient sect, which, in the 
seventh century, spread over Armenia and Thrace, and 
which, when persecuted by the Greek emperor, might 
migrate into Europe and mingle with the Waldenses in 
Piedmont. Sometimes they were named from the coun- 
try or city in which they prevailed, as Lombardists, Tou- 
lousians, and Albigenses. These branches, however, all 
sprang from one common stock, and were animated by the 
same religious and moral principles." 



112 The Ancient Waldenses. 

In addition to all these local names, applied to the Wal- 
denses, they were also called, especially in Italy, Paterines. 
Mr. Orchard says : " The name of Paterines was given to 

the Waldenses ; and who, for the most 
T 7 a \*f) tS '' P ar ^ held the same opinions, and have, 

therefore, been taken for one and the same 
class of people, who continued till the Reformation, under 
the name of Paterines or Waldenses." And with refer- 
ence to the various names applied to the Waldenses, the 
American Sunday-School Union, very justly remarks: 
" Though these eminent witnesses for the truth are now 

termed, generally, Waldenses and Al- 

A W 'a c/V/^o bigenses, yet they were formerly known 
A. S. S. U., p. 18. • L * j • xjie 

by a variety ot names — some derived irom 

their teachers, some from their manner of life, some from 
the places where they resided, some from the fate they 
suffered, and some from the malice of their enemies. The 
valleys of Piedmont, first gave them the name of Val- 
lenses, Waldenses, or Vaudois, a name which has since 
been employed to distinguish them as a primitive church. 
Those in the south of France were termed Albigenses, or 
poor men of Lyons, from their residence in or about Albi 
and Lyons. In like manner they were called Picards, 
Lombards, Bohemians, Bulgarians, etc., from the coun- 
tries in which they dwelt. The epithets Cathari and Pa- 
terines were applied to them as terms of reproach ; and that 
of Lollards, either from the same cause, or from a Wal- 
densean pastor, Walter Lollard, who flourished about the 
middle of the thirteenth century." 

It is not my purpose, in this work, to give a detailed 
account of all these families of Waldenses, in the various 
countries, but I only design to follow up the church succes- 



The flame Waldenses. 13 3 

sion in the most direct line through the ancient Waldenses. 
I do not claim all who have, loosely, been called "Wal- 
denses, as Baptists. 

At the present time there are parties in religion which 
are sometimes called Baptists j and yet, religiously, they 
are our antagonists. The same seems to be true as re- 
gards the Waldenses. The ancient, pure Waldenses, who 
are the ancestors of the Baptists, regarded the Pope as 
Antichrist, the Church of Rome as the whore of Baby- 
lon, the Romish traditions as base idolatry. They had no 
communion or affiliation with the Catholic Church what- 
ever. They held all the Papal rites and ceremonies in 
the utmost abhorrence, as eminating from the devil. But 
there was a class of religionists who were called Wal- 
denses by some Catholic writers and modern Protestant 
historians, who were a kind of Baalamite Waldenses, who 
sometimes communed with the Catholics; and they even 
had their children "baptized" by Catholic priests. These 
were not the faithful Waldenses, who bore testimony 
against the corruptions of Antichrist through the dark 
ages. These so-called Waldenses partook of the Romish 
abominations in order to screen themselves from persecu- 
tion. This class of pseudo Waldenses, however, had no 
permanent independent church organization until the time 
of the Reformation of the sixteenth century. This accounts 
for the claim of the modern Pedobaptists, that the Wal- 
denses were Pedobaptists. But it will be abundantly 
shown that the true Waldenses were Anti-pedobaptists. 
We now regard the following points as fully established : 
1. That the term Waldenses was applied to the Christian 
inhabitants of the valleys of the Alps long before the time 
of Peter Waldo. 



114 The Ancient Waldenses. 

2. That Peter of Lyons received the name Waldus, or 
. Waldo, from the Waldenses, on account of his union with 
them. 

3. That the term Waldenses was derived from the resi- 
dence in the valleys of the Alps, of the ancient martyrs of 
Jesus. 

It must be distinctly understood that the use of the 
name Waldenses, in this work, is designed to apply to the 
pure, ancient Waldenses, unless some qualification is used 
to indicate a different application. 



Section II. — The charge of drs. miller and rice 

AGAINST JONES, THE HISTORIAN. 

" Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and perse- 

cute you, and shall say all manner of evil 

against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, 

and be exceeding glad : for great is your reward in heaven : 

for so persecuted they the prophets which were before 

you." 

It was foretold by Christ and the apostles, that the 
faithful witnesses of Jesus should be accounted the filth 
and off-scouring of the world. Christ and the apostles 
were slandered and cruelly persecuted. The ancient Wal- 
denses were misrepresented and persecuted by the doctors 
of the Catholic Church. And it need not be a matter of 
surprise that the Presbyterian D.D/s, descendants of the 
Catholic Church, should misrepresent and slander a Bap- 
tist historian. As these learned dignitaries of Presbyte- 
rianism have assailed the character of William Jones, the 
Baptist historian, charging him with fabrication and/afoe- 



Charges against the Historian Jones. 115 

hood, it becomes us to pause and examine the grounds of 
these fearful accusations. 

Dr. Miller, in his letter to Mr. Whary, which is pub- 
lished in the " Sketches of Church History/' says: "That 
Mr. Jones has carefully withheld all the 
evidences of this fact (infant baptism) -jo ro * nl ' 
from his readers/' and then charges Mr. 
Jones with "forgery." And Dr. Rice makes his charge 
against Mr. Jones as follows: "I have another interest- 
ing portion of history, which I will pre- 

, n • n , • hit r\ Deb, with Camp- 

sent lor your consideration. Mr. (Jamp- , ,, 404 * 

bell, and other Anti-pedobaptists, have 
claimed the Waldenses and Albigenses (those witnesses 
for God and the truth, in the dark ages, when Christian- 
ity seemed almost lost from the earth ) as Anti-pedobap- 
tists. This claim is set up by Mr. Jones, the Baptist his- 
torian, of whose history Mr. Campbell has spoken in the 
highest terms \ yet, in his account of the Waldenses, 
though quoting avowedly from Perrin's history, he left 
out everything that squinted at infant baptism ! " 

Dr. Rice bases this charge, upon the discrepancy in the 
accounts of Paul Perrin and William Jones, of the re- 
port of the commissioners to Louis XII., King of France, 
concerning the Waldenses. Mr. Rice took it for granted 
that Mr. Jones pretended to quote Perrin, and left out 
the clause which Perrin inserts concerning infant bap- 
tism. But, as will be seen, Mr. Jones does not profess 
to quote Perrin; he says, "quoted by Perrin." So, the 
question of veracity between Perrin and Jones must 
be settled by reference to the original document, the re- 
port to Louis. We will now proceed to introduce the 
conflicting accounts of Perrin and Jones, upon which 



116 The Ancient Waldenses. 

Miller and Rice rely to convict Jones of falsehood. Mr. 
Perrin says : " King Louis XII., of France, having re- 
ceived information from the enemies of the 
andMbt Wa w Waldenses > dwelling in Provence, of sev- 
eral heinous crimes which they fathered 
upon them, sent to the place Adam Fumee, Master of Re- 
quests, and a Sorbonist doctor, called Parni, who was his 
confessor, to make inquiry into the matter. They visited 
all their parishes and temples, and neither found there 
any images, or sign of the ornaments belonging to the 
mass or ceremonies of the Romish Church; much less 
could they discover any of those crimes with which they 
were charged. But rather that they kept the Sabbath 
duly, caused their children to be baptized according to the 
primitive church, taught them the articles of the Christian 
faith, and the commandments of God. The King having 
heard the report of the said commissioners, said, with an 
oath, that they were better men than himself or his peo- 
ple." 

Mr. Jones says : " Louis the XII., King of France, 

being informed by the enemies of the Wal- 
Jones' Gh. His.. i • i i v ± j? xi. 

2fi0 ' denses inhabiting a part 01 the province 

of Provence, that several heinous crimes 
were laid to their account, sent the Master of Requests, 
and a certain doctor of Sorbonne, who was confessor to 
his majesty, to make inquiry into this matter. On their 
return, they reported that they had visited all the par- 
ishes where they dwelt, had inspected their places of 
worship, but that they had found no images, nor signs of 
the ornaments belonging to the mass, nor any of the cer- 
emonies of the Romish Church ; much less could they dis- 
cover any traces of those crimes with which they were 






Charges against the Historian Jones. 117 

charged. On the contrary, they kept the Sabbath day, 
observed the ordinance of baptism according to the prim- 
itive church, instructed their children in the articles of 
the Christian faith, and the commandments of God. The 
King, having heard the report of his commissioners, said, 
with an oath, that they were better men than himself or 
his people." 

In regard to this difference between the historians Per- 

rin and Jones, Dr. Rice remarks : " Here 

-a/i- T ii , . r , z Camp, and Bice's 

Mr. Jones, when he came to infant bap- r>-k *. &c\r 

tis?n, wholly omitted it; and instead of 
saying, as did the author he quoted, t causing their children 
to be baptized/ he says, * observed the ordinance of bap- 
tism according to the primitive church ! ! ! - Thus, the 
Waldenses are proved to be Anti-pedobaptists, by conceal- 
ing their testimony. A more glaring falsification of his- 
tory, I never saw." 

A writer in the Southern Baptist Review says : " Here, 
then, we have the standing charge of fal- 
sification and forgery, first made against * 177 ^'m ' 
Mr. Jones by Dr. Miller, then reiterated 
and attempted to be* proved by Mr. Rice, both eminent 
Presbyterian divines. But it happens that there is a slight 
mistake in the statements of these gentlemen, which, being 
discovered, will materially relieve Mr. Jones from the 
1 undesirable ' position in which he is thus placed as a 
historian. The mistake is this : Mr. Jones does not quote 
Perrin, as is alleged, but the same authority which Perrin 
quotes. ' The authority/ says Elder Waller, ' which Perrin 
quotes is Vesembecius' Oration respecting the Waldenses. 
Jones refers to the same authority — Vesembecius' Oration 
on the Waldenses, in Perrin, chap. V. He does not say, as 



118 The Ancient Waldenses. 

quoted from Perrin. He evidently looks beyond Perrin, 
and draws his authority from the same source. To impeach 
Jones, therefore, and to discredit him as a historian, ap- 
peal must be made to the original authority — the author- 
ity upon which he and Perrin both rely : to the Oration 
of Vesembecius. This, Mr. Rice did not do. He has, 
consequently, made his charge at random, and affirmed 
concerning that of which he knew nothing. Had he gone 
to the proper source for information, he would have found 
that Jones was right and Perrin wrong." 

That part of the oration of Vesembecius concerning 
which this controversy has arisen, is found in the cele- 
brated discussion between Pope and Maguire, held in 
Dublin, Ireland, in the year 1827. Mr. Pope was an 
Episcopalian, and could have no partiality for the Baptist 
side of this controversy. In fact, this discussion occurred 
before this charge was made against Mr. Jones. It will 
be found by the examination of the Latin, from the report 
of the commissioners to King Louis, that Jones is correct, 
and the modern translations of Perrin wrong. It is my 
opinion that, if we could procure the original of Perrin's " 
history in the French language, we would find that there 
is no discrepancy between Perrin and Jones. It is possible 
that the error has crept into the modern translations of 
Perrin. Mr. Pope, in his debate with Maguire, a Romish 
priest, gives the circumstances of the commission to the 
Waldenses, with the report in Latin, and the translation, 

as follows: "When some cardinals and 
ST & S^ 6 P relates ac ™sed the Waldenses in Merin- 

dol and Cabriers of grievous crimes, and 
urged Lewis XII. to root them out, the Waldenses, hav- 
ing notice thereof, sent their deputies to his majesty to 



Charges against the Historian Jones. 119 

declare their innocence. The prelates were instant upon 
the king not to give them any audience; but the king 
answered, that if he were to make war against the Turk, he 
would previously hear him. The king accordingly sent 
Adam Fumee, his Master of Requests, and Doctor Parni, 
his confessor, to search and inquire both into their life and 
religion. The commissioners visited those places, and upon 
their return reported to the king the result of their exam- 
ination — viz: 'That men were baptized; the articles of 
faith, and the ten commandments, were taught; the Lord's 
day observed; the word of God preached; and no show 
of wickedness or fornication to be perceived among them ; 
but that they found not any images in their churches, nor 
any ornaments belonging to the mass/ 

The king, hearing this report of the commissioners, said 
(and bound it with an oath), ' That they were better men 
than he or the rest of his Catholic subjects/ 

1 Turn rex etiamsi, inquit, nihi in Turcam aut diabolum 
bellum suscipiendum esset eos tamen prius audire vellem/ 
— Wesembecii Oratio de Valdens., p. 418, extat in Joach. 
Camerarii Histor. Narrations de Fratrum, Orthod. Eccl. 
in Bohemia. 

' Illi ad regem referunt, illis in locis homines baptizari, 
ari;iculos fidei et decalogum doceri, dominicos dies religiose 
coli, Dei verbum exponi, veneficia et stupra apud eos 
nulla esse. His auditis rex, Jurejurando addito, me, in- 
quit, et cetero populo meo Catholico meliores ilia viri 
sunt/ — Ibid., p. 419. 

i Ceterum se in ipsorum templis neque imagines neque 
ornamenta missae ulla reperisse/ — IbidP 

We consider the foregoing quotation of great import- 
ance. It contains the original of the report which must 



120 The Ancient Waldenses, 

settle the question of the veracity of ¥m. Jones, the his- 
torian, who has gone to his reward. Perrin's history rep- 
resents the commissioners as saying that the Waldenses 
" Caused their children to be baptized according to the 
primitive church ; " but Mr. Jones leaves out the baptizing 
of the children, for which he is branded as a false histo- 
rian. But the report says, "homines baptizari" "that 
men were baptized ; " the word infantes is not in the report. 
As remarked by J. L. Waller: "The charge against 
Jones falls to the earth, and the blows at his reputation 
recoil ; ' on the heads of his accusers. It turns out that 
Jones is the correct historian, and Perrin, or his transla- 
tor, must be wrong. Pedobaptist writers are, certainly, 
hard pressed to prove Pedobaptism on the Waldenses. 
Mr. Jones did not conceal the history of the Waldenses; 
he freely admits, as will be seen hereafter, that the pres- 
ent Waldenses are Pedobaptists. It is a pity that such 
men as Drs. Miller and Rice will attempt to blast the 
character of a historian without an investigation of all 
the evidences on which they found their accusations. 
Have such men the moral courage to withdraw their 
charges? If such men as these will resort to such un- 
worthy means to injure the character of Baptists, after they 
are sleeping in the tomb, what maybe expected of the com- 
mon herd of sectarians who are not acquainted with Bap- 
tist history ? And why need we be surprised at the conduct 
of Catholics for tearing up the remains of the dead to be 
consigned to the flames, when learned men, who profess to 
be reformed Christians, are willing, without the slightest 
foundation, to tear from the tomb of the past the character 
of a Baptist historian and consign it to infamy ? There 
will be a time when secret things will be brought to light. 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 121 



Section III. — The ancient waldenses baptists — 

THE MODERN WALDENSES PEDOBAPTISTS. 

Of all the slanders and misrepresentations which have 
been perpetrated against the ancient Waldenses, the most 
remarkable is that of infant baptism. It is a well-known 
historical fact, that for rejecting infant baptism their 
blood was poured out like water for many centuries. 
And it is also admitted, by all parties, that the present 
inhabitants of the valleys of the Alps (called Waldenses) 
are Pedobaptists. A failure to distinguish between the 
ancient and modern Waldenses, is the main cause of the 
confusion concerning the denominational features of these 
people. It may not be amiss to distinguish between these 
two classes of Waldenses, by calling the ancient class 
Baptist Waldenses, and the modern class Pedobaptist 
Waldenses. The present Pedobaptist Waldenses are not 
the denominational descendants of the ancient Walden- 
ses. They descended from the Protestant Reformation 
under Calvin and others. It is important to note the fact, 
that the term Waldenses was first applied to a local com- 
munity. It afterward became the general name of a reli- 
gious denomination throughout Europe; but now the 
name is restricted to a local community — the inhabitants 
of the valleys, who sprang from the Reformation of the 
sixteenth century. And there is now no dispute as to the 
denominational character of these modern Waldenses. 
They are Pedobaptists. But the ancient Waldenses, who 
were regarded as the witnesses for Christ, were Baptists. 
It is admitted that there were some persons, after the 
times of Huss and Jerome, in Bohemia and other places 
who protested occasionally against the corruptions of 



122 The Ancient Waldenses. 

Rome, and at the same time received her ordinances and 
conformed, in part, to her superstitions. These were some- 
times called Waldenses ; but they were not the witnessing 
Waldenses. In regard to this controversy Mr. Orchard 
says : " The earliest claims which Pedo- 
Orch. Bapt. His., baptists can establish to any section of 
vol I, p. 308; t k ege (Jiggident^ as a distinct body from 

Eccl.Res. p. 488. R 0111 ^ * s from a document dated 1508. 

This instrument is easily explained. Dur- 
ing the ministry of Huss and Jerome, many persons 
were brought into their congregations who could not 
forego the Roman ceremonies. After Huss ; death, a 
great many, found in Zisca's army (1433), were called 
Calixtines — i. e., persons who wished the cup in the eu- 
charist restored to the laity, but in every other respect 
were Catholics. Another part was made up of those per- 
sons who were zealous for reform in church and state; 
while a third part was called Waldenses, or Picards, who 
interfered not in political affairs." 

Of these wavering Bohemian Hussites who separated 
from the Calixtines in 1457, Mr. Orchard says: "Such 

was the unsettled state of the rest and re- 
r ? I ™\J!® '' mainder of this body, that they published 

nine creeds, or confessions of faith, or 
rather one creed amended and improved each time. (Rob- 
ins. Res., p. 312.) The fourth, with the fifth edition im- 
proved, was presented, it is said, in 1508, to King Ula- 
dislaus, while he was in Hungary. The confession pre- 
sented to the king, says, in the preface, that the petitioning 
party were not Waldenses, though they were persecuted 
under that name." From this testimony we discover that 
the first dated document, or confession of faith, among the 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 123 

Waldenses in support of infant baptism, was published in 
1508 by the Calixtine Hussites, who were not ihe descend- 
ants of the original Waldenses, and by their own confes- 
sion were not Waldenses at all. And yet Pedobaptist 
historians gravely quote this confession in proof of the 
Pedobaptist character of the ancient Waldenses. 

But the document mainly relied on by the champions 
of infant baptism to prove the charge of infant baptism 
on the ancient Waldenses, is the "Spiritual Alma- 
nac"!! This rare document was found among More- 
land's Waldensean manuscripts, gathered about the year 
1655, and its date and authorship is entirely unknown; but 
it is supposed to have been written by George Moril, about 
the year 1530. But some Pedobaptists claim the Spiritual 
Almanac as a very ancient and pure Waldensean document. 
It is relied on by Perrin and Wall to refute the standing 
charge of the Catholics, that the Waldenses rejected infant 
baptism. This charge of the Catholic writers, that the Wal- 
denses "rejected the baptism of infants," Paul Perrin calls 
a " calumny " He remarks : " The fourth calumny was 
concerning baptism, which it is said they ^ ^ , , 
denied to infants. Jb rom this imputation 
they quit themselves as follows: 'Neither is the time or 
place appointed for those who must be baptized ; but char- 
ity, and the edification of the church and congregation, 
ought to be the rule in this matter ; yet, notwithstanding, 
we bring our children to be baptized, — which they ought to 
do to whom they are nearest related — as are their parents, 
or those whom God hath inspired with such a charity/ " 
Any one who is partially acquainted with the history of 
the Waldenses, must be convinced, at once, that this Spir- 
itual Almanac, as quoted by Perrin, is not a genuine an- 



124 The Ancient Waldenses. 

cient Waldensean document. It bears upon its face its 
own condemnation. It should be remembered that the 
ancient Waldenses held with death-like tenacity to the 
word of God alone as the rule of action in matters of re- 
ligion; but these Waldenses, of Spiritual- Almanac noto- 
riety, appeal to charity and the edification of the church 
and congregation as " the rule in this matter " of baptizing 
infants! Does any one suppose for a moment that the 
ancient witnesses of God, the Waldenses, would deviate 
from God's word and make a pseudo charity the rule of 
action ? No. This Almanac did not come from the an- 
cient Waldenses. But the apology of Paul Perrin for 
the Catholic charge against the Waldenses for rejecting 
infant baptism, only makes bad, worse; and places the 
Waldenses in a very unenviable position, indeed. And 
if he is correct, it would be hard enough even for the 
modern Pedobaptists to claim affinity with the Waldenses 
at all. He says : " True it is, that, being for some hun- 
dreds of years constrained to suffer their 
w7r 28 children to be baptized by the Romish 

priests, they deferred the doing of it as 
long as possible, because they detested the human inven- 
tions annexed to the institution of that Holy Sacrament, 
which they looked upon as pollutions of it. Their pas- 
tors, whom they called barbes, being often in travels 
abroad, for the service of their churches, they could not 
have baptism administered to their children by their own 
ministry. They, therefore, sometimes kept them long 
without baptism, upon which delay the priests charged 
them with that reproach. To which, not only their ad- 
versaries have given credit, but many of those also who 
have approved of their lives and faith in all other points." 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 125 

If any one fact in all history is settled beyond contro- 
versy, it is the fact that the ancient Waldenses utterly ab- 
horred the Romish Church, with all of its ordinances and 
worship, as the Apocalyptic woman drunk with the blood 
of the saints. And it was for rejecting her baptism and 
fellowship that they suffered indescribable persecutions 
and afflictions for centuries. They stood as the witnesses 
against Antichrist during the midnight of the world. But 
now some Pedobaptist historians have found a class of so- 
called Waldenses, who suffered their children to be bap- 
tized by the Romish priests for hundreds of years together ; 
and this, they tell us, was because their pastors were often 
abroad in the service of their churches; therefore, as they 
could not get baptism from the hands of their own minis- 
ters, they carried their children to the Romish priests for 
baptism ! ! ! 

The Pedobaptists are welcome to such an ancestry as 
have, to avoid persecution, submitted to the most debas- 
ing superstitions and idolatries of Antichrist. But these 
were not the true Waldenses, who resisted Rome even to 
the shedding of their own blood. It is admitted that these 
Calixtine Pedobaptist Waldenses existed in Bohemia and 
other places, even before the time of Luther. And this 
is the class of Waldenses that united with the Reformers 
in the sixteenth century. They not only submitted to 
Romish infant baptism, but they committed the grossest 
idolatry in going to the Catholic mass. Of this class of 
modern Waldenses, Mr. Orchard remarks : " These com- 
promising Vaudois, with their remote an- 
cestry and progeny, form evidently the ^7/^5^*' 
class of the evangelicals whose conduct is 
an exact key to Perrin's account. This is supported by 



126 The Ancient Waldenses. 

their state in 1530, when the churches connected with 
George Moril to save themselves from Catholic rage, did 
go to mass in Provence, and pleaded it was no great harm, 
provided their hearts were kept right with God. For 
which prevarication and hypocrisy the reformer Oecolam- 
padius rebukes them, and condemns the practice." " Such 
were not witnesses of the truth." 

Even the learned Dr. Wall, after all of his efforts to 
find infant baptism among the ancient 

ee Ka - a 8 ^ f Waldenses, admits that in their elder con- 

p. 597. m ' 

fessions the Waldenses say nothing about 
infant baptism. 

The reader is now pretty well prepared to discriminate 
between the ancient and modern Waldenses. But to re- 
move all doubt upon this subject, we now introduce other 
witnesses on this important question. 

Mr. Robinson, the historian, says : " They ( ancient 

Waldenses) are also distinguished from 
RobJsEcclRes. ^ ktfcer y audoi and th re f or med 
p. 461. . 

churches, by not using any liturgy; by 

not compelling faith ; by condemning parochial churches ; 
by not taking oaths ; by allowing every person, even wo- 
men, to teach ; by not practicing infant baptism ; by not 
admitting godfathers; by rejecting all sacerdotal habits; 
by denying all ecclesiastical orders of priesthood, Papal 
and Episcopal; by not bearing arms, and by their abhor- 
rence of every species of persecution." 

How wide the ecclesiastical gulf between the ancient 
Waldenses — who patiently suffered the loss of all things, 
even to life itself, rather than shed the blood of others — 
and these modern Pedobaptist Waldenses, who established 
themselves by cruel war and bloody revenge ! 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 127 

In describing the modern Waldenses in their struggles 
to establish themselves in the valleys, the American Sun- 
day School Union testifies as follows : " And what is still 
more lamentable, the Vaudois, having no 

means of providing; for the security of the W * a '' 

11 a * «/• & ^P- 129 - 

prisoners, were compelled, tor tneir own 

safety, to put to the sword every man that fell into their 

hands." 

No one who is not prompted by sectarian motives, will 
associate these warlike Waldenses with the ancient suffer- 
ing witnesses for Christ, called Waldenses. 

It is also a well known fact in history, that the ancient 

Waldenses firmly resisted every form of 

State religion. But these Pedobaptist See °™h vol i, 

■ 4. a • 4. p. 316; also, A. 

Waldenses were incorporated into na- s. JS U. v 144 

tional churches, and their ministers finally 

were enrolled among the State clergy of the empire. 

It was about the year 1532 that the Pedobaptist Wal- 
denses, in connection with George Moril and Peter Mas- 
son, united with the Reformers under Luther and Calvin. 
And this class of Waldenses were classed by the Catho- 
lics with the Lutherans. This union with the Reformers 
was effected through the instrumentality of Oecolampa- 
dius. 

Concerning the distinction between the ancient and 
modern Waldenses, Mr. Benedict remarks : " For a num- 
ber of the first centuries their discipline 
partook of the freedom and simplicity of 67 1* w * ap '' 
the Baptists, and was more free as to the 
teaching of females, and the brotherhood generally, than 
many of our churches would now admit. By degrees 
they were moulded into Presbyterian measures, and in 



128 The Ancient Waldenses. 

the end, that portion of them which still survived in the 
ancient valleys, adopted in substance the Episcopal form 
of church government." 

The author of the Encyclopedia of Religious Knowl- 
edge remarks that : " It is necessary here that we distin- 
guish between the ancient and modern 
Religi^mEncyc,, Waldenses . It app ears, from all the ac- 
counts we gather of them before the Re- 
formation, that their principles and practice were more pure 
and Scriptural than since that period." 

Mr. Jones, as the special historian of the Waldenses, is 
still more explicit on this point. In the preface to his 
fifth London edition, Mr. Jones says, in reply to the com- 
plaint of Mr. Gilly, who found fault with Jones because 
he carried the history of the Waldenses no further than 
the year 1686: "This is certainly true; but my defense 

is an easy one — my narrative stops where 

Jones' Fifth Edi- ,7 , 7 t j? ± • xl i»* 

</ the story ends. 1 profess to give the his- 

tory of the churches of Piedmont and 
other places, commonly designated Waldenses and Albi- 
genses, not of individuals ; and as I consider those churches 
to have been utterly dispersed and scattered by a series of 
persecutions which terminated in the year 1686, I con- 
sider myself to have brought the subject to its legitimate 
close. If we give credit to a host of writers belonging to 
the Church of England, the two witnesses of the Apoca- 
lypse (Rev. xi: 3, 4, etc.) were the two churches, or, to 
speak more properly, the two classes of churches, which 
passed under the names of the Waldenses and Albigenses. 
* * * * Now, these two witnesses, after prophesying 
twelve hundred and sixty years in sackcloth, according to 
the prophetic testimony, were to be finally overcome and 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 129 

killed by the Beast that ascended out of the bottomless 
pit. (Rev. xi: 7.) This event I consider to have been 
consummated in the year 1686, and consequently as term- 
inating the history of the Waldenses." Mr. Jones further 
remarks : " But it may be asked, does not the page of 
history record, that in the year 1689, about 
eight or nine hundred men proceeded from ? nes ^ 
the neighborhood of Geneva, equipped with 
arms and ammunition, re-entered their own country, drove 
away the new inhabitants, after many contests with their 
enemies, obtained a reinstatement in their former posses- 
sions? Certainly; there is no disposition to deny the fact; 
but I beg leave to ask Mr. Gilly, and those who dwell 
upon it, of what description of persons did this new race 
of Waldenses consist — and are they prepared to show us 
a number of churches formed by them bearing any resem- 
blance to those of the ancient Waldenses, which were dis- 
persed by the armies of Louis XIV. and the Duke of Sa- 
voy ? We are quite content to rest the issue of this inquiry 
on the testimony which is borne to the present state of 
the Vaudois, by our author, and the other members of the 
established church, compared with the accounts which 
have been transmitted to us by friends and foes concern- 
ing their ancestors." Again, after showing that the pres- 
ent inhabitants of the valleys sprinkled infants, Mr. Jones 
t says of the ancient Waldenses, that they represent them- 
selves thus : " 'We believe that in the ordinance of bap- 
tism/ say they, the water is 'the visible 

i . -i . i . i Joiiei Fifth Edi- 

ancl external sign which represents to us x . i. 

° . r lion, p. 11. 

that which, by virtue of God's invisible 

operation, is within us — namely, the renovation of our 

minds, and the mortification of our members through 



130 The Ancient Waldenses. 

Jesus Christ. And by this ordinance we are received into 
the holy congregation of God's people, previously profess- 
ing our faith and change of life? 

And, with regard to baptism of infants, they insist 
upon it to be one of the leading features of Antichrist. 
Their words are : * He teaches to baptize children into the 
faith, and attributes to this the work of regeneration ; 
thus confounding the work of the Holy Spirit, in regener- 
ation, with the external rite of baptism, and on this foun- 
dation bestows orders, and indeed grounds all his Chris- 
tianity/ " And, on the same page, Mr. Jones concludes 
thus: " Enough has surely been said to 

ones tj i- g j 10W ^^ fae present race of Protestant 
tion, p. 11. . f. 

churches in Piedmont bear little or no 

affinity to the ancient Waldenses, either in their doctrinal 
sentiments, their discipline and external order, or their 
religious practices ; and it is an act of justice to the mem- 
ory of these excellent people to rescue them from this 
unnatural alliance." And after thus showing that the 
ancient and modern Waldenses were totally different in 
their denominational character, Mr. Jones says of the 
former that : " They brought up their chil- 

ones ij ^- ^ Yen j n ^ nur ture and admonition of the 
tion y p. 12. 

Lord ; but they neither sprinkled nor im- 
mersed them, under the notion of administering Christian 
baptism ; they were, in a word, so many distinct churches 
of Anti-pedobaptists." 

Enough testimony has now been introduced to satisfy 
every unprejudiced mind that the modern Waldenses are 
totally distinct, in their faith and practice, from the ancient 
Waldenses, who were driven from the valleys of Pied- 
mont in 1686, by the relentless cruelty of the army of 



Ancient V/aldenses (Baptists. 131 

Louis XIV. So, when the Baptists claim the Waldenses 
as their ancestors, they do not refer to the present inhabit- 
ants of the valleys, but to the original Waldenses, who 
dwelt in the valleys before the time of Luther's Reforma- 
tion. The present inhabitants of these valleys, called 
Waldenses, are not Baptists. They are a different race 
of Waldenses from the original witnesses w T ho dw r elt in the 
valleys before the Reformation. Many modern Pedobap- 
tists, like the Pharisees in the time of Christ, build the 
tomb of the Waldenses, though their own fathers killed 
them. And while they praise to the skies these noble 
martyrs, they persecute to the extent of their power those 
who now advocate the same doctrine for which the Wal- 
denses suffered, bled, and died. But, in order to stop the 
mouth of every gainsay er, we here present a few other wit- 
nesses in vindication of the Waldenses from the charge 
of Pedobaptism. Mr. Benedict says : " I 
have said that, from very early times, up 
to the fifteenth century, the Baptist, or, at least, the Anti- 
pedobaptist character of a multitude of that great commu- 
nity which passed under the general name of Waldenses 
and Albigenses, is very strongly developed; it is indicated 
by the canons, decrees, and anathemas of so many coun- 
cils ; by the statutes of so many states and governments ; 
and the impeachments and complaints of so many old 
writers on the Pedobaptist side, that a man of but a mod- 
erate share of ecclesiastical knowledge must make a judy 
of himself to deny it, or prove himself an unfair historian 
if he attempts to conceal it." Again, Dr. Wall, the learned 
Episcopalian, admits that : " The Popish Bht. Inf. Bapt. y 
writers of that time, who wrote against p. 596. 
them [the Waldenses], some of w r hich do plainly and 



132 The Ancient Waldenses. 

, f , — 

fully charge some of tliem with denying it" — infant 
baptism. It is a conceded fact, by all candid historians, 
that the Roman Catholics not only accused the Waldenses 
of neglecting infant baptism, but they waged constant 
persecution against them, in order to force them to bap- 
tize their infants. This would not have been the case had 
the Waldenses been Pedobaptists. In. regard to this per- 
secution against the Waldenses, to force them to baptize 

children, Mr. Jones says : " On the 31st 
400 l "' of January, 1686, they were amazed at 

the publication of an order from the 
Duke of Savoy, forbidding his subjects the exercise of the 
Protestant religion upon pain of death ; the confiscation 
of their goods ; the demolition of their churches ; and the 
banishment of their pastors. All infants born from that 
time were to be baptized and brought up in the Roman 
Catholic religion, under the penalty of their fathers being 
condemned to the galleys." We here insert the language 
of Victor Amadeus, the Duke of Savoy, in his cruel edict 
against the Waldenses. These are his own words : " And 

concerning the children that shall be born 
Jonrf Ch. Bis., by father and mother of the gaid preten( Jed 

Reformed religion, our intention is that, 
after the publishing this present edict, they shall be bap- 
tized by the priests of the parish that are already, or that 
shall be, established for the future in the said valleys : 
to this purpose we command their fathers and mothers 
to send or bring them to the churches, under pain of 
being sent five years to the galleys for their fathers, and 
whipping for their mothers; and, moreover, the said 
children shall be brought up in the said Catholic, Apos- 
tolic, and Roman religion. And we command expressly 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 133 

all judges, bailiffs, goalers, and other officers, to see these 
presents duly executed." 

If the Waldenses had been sound Pedobaptists, where 
would have been the necessity of publicly whipping the 
Waldensean mothers, sending the fathers to hard labor in 
prison, and taking their children away from them in order 
to baptize and raise them in the Catholic religion ! The 
ancient Waldenses were not Pedobaptists ; and they are 
grossly misrepresented when accused of infant baptism. 
Mr. Orchard, the historian, testifies as follows : " The an- 
cestors of the Waldenses, were termed 
Vaudois, Puritans, Paterines, Lyonists, r ? c ' a ^ 7 W ' y 
Petrobrusians, Arnoldists, Berengarians ; 
these, with the Paulicians, were one and the same peo- 
ple; and, so far as information can be obtained, were all 
Anti-pedobaptists, which has been previously proved in 
their respective sections. These all agreed in one article 
of discipline — they re-baptized all such as came into their 
communion from the Catholic Church ; hence were called 
Anabaptists." In fact, it was the universal complaint of 
the Catholics against the Waldenses that they neglected 
the baptism of infants. " Cardinal Hos- 
sius, who presided at the Council of Trent, r ? ' a ^ ' ™' y 
and wrote a history of the heresy of his 
own times, says, the Waldenses rejected infant baptism, 
and re-baptized all who embraced their sentiments." 

Mr. Orchard closes his testimony upon this point in the 
following language : " Amidst all the pro- 
auctions oi early writers, mends and toes, , T ^ 07 ' 
confessors of the whole truth and opposers 
of it, annalists, historians, recorders, inquisitors, and 
others, with the labored researches of Usher, Newton, 



134 The Ancient Waldenses. 

Allix, Collier, Wall, Perrin, Leger, Moreland, Mosheim, 
Macleane, Gilly, Sims, and others— all of the Pedobaptist 
persuasion, with every advantage of learning on their side, 
who collated councils, canons, synods, conferences, chroni- 
cles, decrees, bulls, sermons, homilies, confessions, creeds, 
liturgies, etc., from the private creed of Irenseus down to 
the rules of Augsburg ; who examined documents at home, 
and explored territories abroad, — their united labors could 
never produce a single dated document or testimony 
of Pedobaptism among the Vaudois, separate from the 
Romish community, from Novatian's rupture to the death , 
of the execrable monster, Alexander VI., 1503." 

It is said that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word shall be established; and from the testimony 
of friends and foes. Baptists, Protestants and Catholics, 
we have proved that the ancient Waldenses were Anti- 
pedobaptists. With such mountains of testimony rising 
up before us, it is useless to introduce other witnesses on 
this point ; for he that will not be convinced by the testi- 
mony already adduced, that the original Waldenses did 
not baptize infants, need not be argued with ; for such are 
given over to prejudice and blindness of heart. In as- 
cending the stream of history we have discovered that 
the ancient Waldenses are the real ancestors of the Bap- 
tist denomination of the present day. But we will, for 
the accommodation of those who are weak in the faith, 
introduce other witnesses on this point. 

All, who possess even a moderate share of historic 
knowledge, must admit that every Pedobaptist confession 
of faith, ancient or modern, teaches, directly and posi- 
tively, the doctrine of infant baptism. 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 135 

We now proceed to examine the ancient Waldensean 
confessions on this subject. 

First: We refer the reader to an ancient Waldensean 
confession, as given by Jones the historian, and also found 
in Perrin and others. In this confession, article twelfth, the 
ancient Waldenses say : " We consider the 
sacraments as signs of holy things, or as 7 ^? Q " j 
the visible emblems of invisible blessings. p err in c hap. 12! 
We regard it as proper and even necessary 
that believers use these symbols or visible forms when it 
can be done. Notwithstanding which, we maintain that 
believers may be saved without these signs, when they 
have neither place nor opportunity to observe them." 

This ancient Waldensean confession contains not even 
the slightest intimation of infant baptism. It refers alone 
to the baptism of believers. It is, therefore, an Anti- 
pedobaptist confession. This confession is admitted by 
all to be an ancient document, written about the year 
eleven hundred and twenty. 

Second: Mr. Jone^ gives another ancient Waldensean 
confession of the twelfth century; and 
while it speaks of baptism and the Lord's ~ 4C) ' "' 
Supper, it has not one word about infant 
baptism. 

Third: In another ancient confession of the Waldenses, 

we have the seventh article, as follows: 

" We believe that in the ordinance of bap- Jor ™\ CL H ^ 

.,..,, r p. 251; see also, 

tism the water is the visible and external p err i n c k a p. 12. 

sign which represents to us that which, 
by virtue of God's invisible operation, is within us; 
namely, the renovation of our minds and the mortifica- 
tion of our members, through Jesus Christ. And by 



136 The Ancient Waldenses. 

this ordinance we are received into the holy congrega- 
tion of God's people, previously professing and declaring 
our faith and change of life." 

Is this a Pedobaptist confession? These "Waldenses 
emphatically state, that by this ordinance (baptism) we are 
received into the holy congregation of God's people, pre- 
viously PROFESSING AND DECLARING OUR FAITH AND 
CHANGE OF LIFE. 

Can little infants profess faith and a change of life be- 
fore baptism? Will Drs. Miller and Eice claim this as a 
Pedobaptist confession of faith? It would be quite as 
easy to find infant baptism in the Bible as in this con- 
fession. 

It should be remembered that Dr. Wall, the champion 
of infant baptism, admits that the ancient Waldensean 
confessions say nothing of infant baptism. 

It is worthy of remark, that in the catechism of the 
ancient Waldenses for the instruction of youth, nothing is 
said of infant baptism, though the church and its ordi- 
nances are referred to. Who ever heard of a Pedobaptist 
catechism which leaves out infant baptism? There is no 
such catechism in existence. 

Another ancient Waldensean document is called the 
" Noble Lesson." It was written in the original Walden- 
sean language, and dated in the year 1100. This docu- 
ment is appealed to by all historians as an authentic 
Waldensean production. It exhibits the purity of the 
doctrine of the Waldenses in contrast with the corrup- 
tions of Rome. Infant baptism can not be found in the 
Noble Lessons. In regard to the ministry of the apos- 
tles, the Noble Lessons says: "And they [the apostles] 
proclaimed without fear the doctrine of Christ, preaching 



Ancient Waldenses (Baptists. 137 

to Jews and Greeks, and working many miracles. And 

they baptized the believers in the name of 

Jesus Christ. Then there became a peo- * * "' 

pie of new converts, and they were called 

Christians because they trusted in Christ." 

Yes ; this Noble Lesson of the ancient Waldenses, like 
the Bible from which it was drawn, teaches the baptism 
of believers only. It knows nothing of infant baptism. 
And yet we are told that the ancient Waldenses were 
Pedobaptists ! 

Once more, we call attention to the ancient Walden- 
sean document called " A Treatise concerning Antichrist," 
etc. This treatise, or work on Antichrist, bears date, A. D. 
1120, which is nearly half a century before the time of 
Peter Waldo. In describing Antichrist, this work says : 
" He teaches to baptize children into the 
faith, and attributes to this the work of Jon ^ 2 Ch ' m -> 
regeneration, thus confounding the work 
of the Holy Spirit in regeneration with the external rite 
of baptism, and on this foundation bestows orders, and, 
indeed, grounds all his Christianity." 

Reader, take notice : the Waldenses are here describing 
Antichrist. And as one work of Antichrist by which he 
may be identified, they say that he teaches to baptize chil- 
dren into the faith, and attributes to this the work of regen- 
eration; thus exhibiting the fact that they considered in- 
fant baptism and baptismal regeneration (which two 
are so nearly allied to each other) as the work of Anti- 
christ — a mark of the Beast. 



138 The Ancient Waldenses. 

Section IV. — Origin of the waldenses. 

In tracing the stream of Baptist history to its fountain- 
head we have, with Mosheim, followed it into the remote 
depths of antiquity, and found the ancient Waldenses, en- 
vironed with the snow-clad Alps, contending for the same 
faith and practice, and suffering for the same principles 
now advocated by Baptists. We have now reached an 
age of the world centuries before the modern sects had a 
being on the earth. Episcopalianism, Lutheranism, Cal- 
vinism, Methodism, and Campbellism, with every other 
ism of modern date, were unknown to these early ages of 
trial ; and while the gloomy darkness of Romanism over- 
shadowed our sin-smitten world, these ancient Waldenses 
were the unwavering witnesses for the truth of Christ, 
and stood as the light of the world through this long 
and gloomy period of moral darkness. But where did 
these Waldenses originate? We have already seen that 
they did not commence with Peter Waldus, but, long be- 
fore the time of Peter's separation from Rome, we find 
them battling for the same glorious truths of the Gospel of 
Christ for which they suffered in after times. Peter, in- 
stead of originating the Waldenses, joined them and re- 
ceived his name Waldus, or Waldensis, from them. It 
has already been observed that the term Albigenses is only 
another name for the same class of persons called Wal- 
denses. While the Waldenses inhabited the valleys of 
Piedmont, the Albigenses dwelt in the southern provinces 
of France. But where did they originate? Shall we ask 
the bleeding Waldenses themselves from whence they 
came ? In their petition to the Duke of Savoy for liberty 
to worship God without molestation, "They implored 



Origin of the Waldenses. 130 

his highness to consider that their religious profession 
was not a thing of yesterday, as their ad- 
versaries falsely reported; but had been on ™ ' ' 
the profession of their fathers, grand- 
fathers, and great-grandfathers; yea, of their predeces- 
sors of still more ancient times, even of the martyrs, con- 
fessors, apostles, and prophets ; and they called upon their 
adversaries to prove the contrary, if they were able." 
These persecuted martyrs of Chrisr claimed that their 
profession was handed down to them from apostolic times. 
And, as all denominations are allowed to give their own 
history, which ought to be taken as correct, unless it con- 
flicts with known facts, why not respect the statements of 
these witnesses of Jesus ? But this claim of the Waldenses 
does not conflict with any known facts ; therefore, their 
testimony is valid, and must not be despised. Men who 
suffered, as did the ancient Waldenses, for the truth, would 
not knowingly utter falsehood in regard to their own his- 
tory. But if they did not descend from the apostolic age, 
they knew it, and are, therefore, liable to the charge of 
falsehood. This can not be; then this statement of the 
Waldenses is true. In regard to the rise of the Waldenses, 
the celebrated Theodore Beza, the successor of Calvin, 
says : "As for the Waldenses, I may be permitted to call 
them the very seed of the primitive and 
purer Christian Church, since they are 2fi „ " ' 
those that have been upheld, as is abund- 
antly manifest, by the wonderful providence of God, so 
that neither those endless storms and tempests by which 
the whole Christian world has been shaken for so many 
succeeding ages, and the western parts at length, so mis- 
erably oppressed by the Bishop of Rome falsely so called, 



140 The Ancient Waldenses. 

nor those horrible persecutions which have been expressly 
raised against them, were ever able so far to prevail as to 
make them bend, or yield a voluntary subjection to the 
Roman tyranny and idolatry." 

" On another occasion the same writer remarks, that 
* the Waldenses, time out of mind, have 

2g4 " *' opposed the abuses of the Church of Rome, 
and have been persecuted after such a 
manner, not by the sword of the word of God, but by 
every species of cruelty, added to a million of calumnies 
and false accusations, that they have been compelled to 
disperse themselves wherever they could, wandering 
through the deserts like wild beasts. The Lord, never- 
theless, has so preserved the residue of them, that, not- 
withstanding the rage of the whole world, they still in- 
habit three countries, at a great distance from each other, 
viz : Calabria, Bohemia, and Piedmont, and the countries 
adjoining, where they dispersed themselves from the quar- 
ters of Provence about two hundred and seventy years 
ago. And, as to their religion, they never adhered to Pa- 
pal superstition, for which reason they have been contin- 
ually harrassed, by the bishops and inquisitors abusing the 
arm of secular justice, so that their continuance to the 
present time is evidently miraculous/ " 

Yes ; these Waldensean Baptists were the seed of the 
primitive church, and upheld by the ivonderful providence 
of God, so that those endless storms and tempests which 
shook the whole Christian world for ages failed to shake 
the courageous Waldenses. And all the fearful persecu- 
tions, attended by every engine of fiendish cruelty, and 
tvith a million of false accusations, failed to make these 
ancient Baptists bow to the Romish Beast. They wandered 



Origin of the Waldenses. 141 

in the deserts like wild beasts of the forest, and there en- 
dured the pelting storms, as well as the rage of the whole 
world; and their preservation to the present time is evi- 
dently miraculous. No wonder that the modern sects are 
so anxious to claim connection with this noble army of 
witnesses for Jesus. But these ancient Waldenses were 
incurable " Anabaptists/' who despised infant baptism as 
a mark of the Beast. They were Baptists in faith and 
practice, who had their origin in the time of Christ and 
the apostles. But let us hear the poet Milton in regard 
to the origin of these people. He says : " Hence the most 
ancient Reformed churches of the Wal- 
denses, if they rather continued not pure on ^ r ' ** j 
since the apostles' days, denied that tithes 
were to be given, or that they were ever given in the 
primitive church, as appears by an ancient tractate in- 
serted in the Bohemian history." As churches, they con- 
tinued pure from all the corruptions of Rome from the 
apostolic age. Oliver Cromwell says, in his letter to the 
Swiss Cantons : " Next to the help of God, it seems to 
devolve on you to provide that the most 
ancient stock of pure religion may not be ones u ' 
destroyed in this remnant of its ancient 
faithful professors, whose safety, reduced as it now is to 
the extremity of hazard, if you neglect, beware that the 
next lot do not speedily fall upon yourselves ! " 

In this letter of the Dictator of England to the Princes 
of Switzerland in behalf of the suffering Waldenses, who 
were being hunted down and slain as the beasts of the field, 
he truly calls them the most ancient stock of pure religion. 
The Swiss ambassadors who were sent to examine the sit- 



142 The Ancient Waldenses. 

uation of the Waldenses, report as follows : " The inhab- 
itants of the valleys did not hold, by the 

402 * ' concessions of their Princes, the liberty to 
exercise in public their religion ; because 
it was established in this country above eight centuries 
ago ; and that they enjoyed this right long before they 
were the subjects of his royal highness' ancestors, inso- 
much that, having never been of the same religion as their 
Prince, it could not be said that they had abandoned it, 
nor he oblige them to return to it." 

This carries the history of the Waldenses in the valleys 
back to a period long before the time of Peter Waldo ; 
and it further shows that they were never of the same re- 
ligion as the Catholics. 

In regard to the origin of the Waldenses, Orchard says : 
"The orthodoxy of the Novatian party, with the influ- 
ence of some of their ministers, is sup- 
re . ap . ts.y p 0se( j ^ h ave procured some mitigation of 
pp. 5/, 58. f ** 7 ■ P 

the law. Constantme s oppressive meas- 
ures prompted many to leave the scene of sufferings, and 
retire into more sequestered spots. Claudius Seyssel, the 
popish archbishop, traces the rise of the Waldensean heresy 
to a pastor named Leo, leaving Rome at this period for the 
valleys." The Novatians were persecuted by Constantine, 
the first to unite church and state ; and numbers of these 
persecuted Novatians left Italy for the valleys of Pied- 
mont at different times from about the year 325 to 425 ; 
and these wandering Novatians were in after times called 
Waldenses. It then appears that the Waldenses sprang 
from the Novatians who fled from Italy in the fourth 
century. Again, Mr. Orchard says, upon this subject, that : 
" Echbertus and Emericus, two avowedly and bitter ene- 



Origin of the Waldenses. 143 

mies of the Waldenses, do assert, that the Orch. Bapt. His., 
new Puritans (Waldenses) do conform to vo1 ■£ P- 2 ^8. 
the doctrines and manner of the old Puritans (i. e., the 
Novatians)." This shows, by the acknowledgment of 
Pedobaptists themselves, that the Waldenses descended 
from the Novatians. And Orchard fixes the time of the 
general dispersion or flight of the ISovatians at the year 
413. These early Waldenses were frequently called Pa- 
terines, but we prefer using the term Waldenses, to avoid 
the confusion arising from the use of so many names. 
Again, Mr. Orchard says, speaking of the persecutions 
against the Waldenses by the emperors Theodosius and 
Honorius, that : " The edict was probably obtained by the 
influence of Augustine, who could endure 
no rival, nor would he bear with any w r ho )C ' ap ' " J 
questioned the virtue of his rites, or the 
sanctity of his brethren, or the soundness of the Catholic 
creed ; and these points being disputed by the Novatian- 
ists and Donatists, two powerful and extensive bodies of 
dissidents in Italy and Africa, they w^ere consequently 
made to feel the weight of his influence. These combined 
modes of oppression led the faithful to abandon the cities 
and seek retreats in the country, which they did, particu- 
larly in the valleys of Piedmont, the inhabitants of which 
began to be called Waldenses." The laws of the fourth 
Lateran council, with the edicts of the emperors of the 
East and West, were leveled against the Novatians and 
Donatists, condemning all the re-baptized and the re-bap- 
tizers to suffer death. This caused many of them to flee 
into the wilderness, to the valleys prepared for their recep- 
tion ; where they soon acquired the name of the Waldenses. 
Thus we have the connection clearly made out between 



144 The Ancient Waldenses. 

the ancient Waldenses and the Novatians. "We will now 
introduce the testimony of the learned editor of the En- 
cyclopedia of Religious knowledge. He remarks that : 
"It seems to be a serious mistake, into 
eigious ncyc, ^j^ some popular writers have fallen, 
who represent the Waldenses as originat- 
ing in France about the year 1170, and deriving their 
name from the celebrated Peter Waldo. The evidence is 
now ample, that so far from being a new sect at that 
period, they had existed under various names, as a dis- 
tinct class of dissenters from the established churches of 
Greece and Rome in the earliest ages. It is an egregious 
error to suppose that when Christianity was taken into 
alliance with the state, by the Emperor Constantine, in 
the beginning of the fourth century, all the orthodox 
churches were so ignorant of the genius of their religion as 
to consent to the corruption of a worldly establishment." 
This author traces the Waldenses back through the No- 
vatians to the apostolic age, or "earliest ages." This 
takes our history back prior to the time of the adulterous 
union of church and state by Constantine; and shows 
clearly that the Waldenses were in existence under vari- 
ous names up to the times of the apostles. 

Crantz, in his history, dates the origin of the Waldenses 
in the beginning of the fourth century, at which time some 
of the Novatians settled in the valleys. Again, it is said 
by Mr. Brown, the editor of the Encyclopedia, that : " The 

Cathari, or Puritan churches of the No- 
Rel^wmEncyc., vatian% alg0 had at that yery period ^ 

(about A. D. 325) been flourishing as a 
distinct communion for more than seventy years all over 
the empire ; maintaining, by the acknowledgment even of 



Origin of ihi Waldenses. 145 



their enemies, the self-styled Catholics, the integrity of 
the true faith, together with the purity of discipline and 
the power of godliness which had generally disappeared 
from the Catholic churches. These Puritans being ex- 
posed to severe and sanguinary persecutions for dissent, 
from age to age, were compelled to shelter themselves from 
the desolating storm in retirement ; and when, at intervals, 
they re-appear on the page of cotemporary history, and 
their principles are propagated with new boldness and 
success, they are styled a new sect, and receive a new 
name, though, in reality, they are the same people." This 
shows that the same people called Novatians in Rome and 
Italy, were called Waldenses in the valleys of Piedmont ; 
and also by a variety of other names in different ages and 
countries. Saccho, the inquisitor, admits that the Wal- 
denses flourished five hundred years before the time of 
Waldo. The Waldenses themselves claim that : " Their 

doctrine and discipline had been preserved 

n .. • , j j2c j? j.1. l Religious H/ncyc, 

m all its purity and emcacy irom the days .. | 4R * ' 

of the primitive martyrs, in Spain, France, 
Germany, Italy, and especially in the valleys of Pied- 
mont." Here the suffering Waldenses claim an existence 
from the time of the " primitive martyrs," or the apostolic 
age. 

In fact, the historic connection between the Waldenses 
and the Novatians, their ancestors, is so strongly devel- 
oped that we can trace the emigration of a whole Novatian 
church from Milan into the valleys of Piedmont, where 
they were afterward called Waldenses. It is stated in the 
Encyclopedia, that : " The learned Dr. Allix, in his ' His- 
tory of the Churches of Piedmont/ gives Religious Eneyc, 
this account : i That, for three hundred p. 1148. 



146 The Ancient Waldenses. 

years or more, the Bishop of Rome attempted to subjugate 
the Church of Milan under his jurisdiction; and at last 
the interest of Rome grew too potent for the Church of 
Milan, planted by one of the disciples ; insomuch that the 
bishop and people, rather than own their jurisdiction, 
retired to the valleys of Lucerne and Angrogna, and thence 
were called Vallences, Wallenses, or the people of the veil- 
leys J" Thus, as it was in the planting of the early 
churches in America, so with those of the valleys of Pied- 
mont — a whole church emigrated together, bearing those 
eternal principles which lighted up the Alpine valleys for 
twelve hundred and sixty years. Edwards contends that 
the Waldenses were the true Church which fled into the 
wilderness from the face of the Apocalyptical Dragon, as 
described in the twelfth chapter of Revelations. We have 
the most overwhelming proof that the ancient Waldenses 
descended from the Novatian churches which bore testi- 
mony against the corruptions of the so-called Catholic 
party in the third, fourth, and fifth centuries. 

It has been erroneously supposed that Claudius of Turin 
was the founder of the Waldensean churches. On this 
point, the " American Sunday School Union " remarks: 

" Although we have stated, in the former 
V*77 a 15 ' * c h a P^ er > that Claudius of Turin has been 

styled the founder of the Waldensean 
churches, their origin is to be traced to a period still more 
remote. Leger begins his history of the Churches of the 
Vaudois by a declaration that, 'they never required any 
reformation/ For the first four or five centuries, the 
whole of what is termed the diocess of the north of Italy, 
of which the Waldenses formed a part, remained com- 
paratively pure." Yes ; it is a historic fact that the an- 



Origin of the Waldenses. 147 

cient Waldenses were not reformers, in the modern accept- 
ation of that term. We all need to reform and amend our 
lives, as individuals ; but Jesus Christ did not establish 
his Church on such a sandy foundation as to need the aid 
of human wisdom to reform it. The Waldenses, instead 
of claiming to be a reformation from Popery, claim to be 
the bride of Christ, which fled into the wilderness from 
the face of the dragon. Mr. Robinson, the historian, 
says: "Let it not seem romantic if we 
suppose that [the] Waldenses, who, we ' 

know, studied the Revelation of John, 
thought themselves directed to retire by God himself to 
sequestered places ; for, by the New Testament prophet, 
he had said : ' The woman fled into the wilderness, where 
she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed 
her there a thousand two hundred and three-score days/ " 

If the Waldenses had sprung either from Waldo or the 
Catholics, they must have known it. But they boldly 
claim to be more ancient than the Catholics — the descend- 
ants of the apostolic churches. And this is claimed for 
them by Monastier, the historian. He claims that: "The 
Vaudois Church is a link that unites 
them [the evangelical churches] to the V J p k 
primitive church. By means of it, they 
establish the anterior existence of their constitution, doc- 
trine, and worship, to that of the papistical idolatries and 
errors." 

Dr. Alexis Muston bears testimony, as follows: " The 
Vaudois (Waldenses) of the Alps are, in 
our view, primitive Christians, or inherit- .... srae ^ 0J 
ors of the primitive church, who have been 
preserved in these valleys from the alterations successively 



148 The Ancient Waldenses. 



introduced by the Church of Rome into the evangelical 
worship. It is not they who separated from Catholicism ; 
but Catholicism which separated from them, in modifying 
the primitive worship." 

And Mr. Jones says that: ."Reinerius Saecho, an in- 
quisitor, and one of their most implacable 
Jones' Ch. His., . i v j i • i j. iv 

2 o 2 enemies, who lived only eighty years alter 

Waldo, admits that the Waldenses flour- 
ished five hundred years before that preacher." 

It is customary for modern writers to call the Wal- 
denses Protestants, which is a misnomer. The term Pro- 
testants was applied to the reformers of the sixteenth 
century, who protested against the corruptions of Rome, 
and forsook her communion. It is, therefore, wrong to 
give the name Protestants to those who were never con- 
nected in any way with the Catholic Church. On this 

subject, Dr. Symmons remarks : " I call 

Jones' Ch. His., ,-i ,i n j • xi .ee • 1 

o„- , ' them, as they are called in these official 
p. 375, note. m ; J 

dispatches, by the generally-known name 
of Protestants ; but the dissenters from the Papal Church, 
who occupied the valleys of Piedmont, had neither con- 
nection nor a common origin with those who were properly 
called Protestants from one of the first acts of their asso- 
ciation in Germany. The Waldenses asserted a much 
more ancient pedigree, and assumed to be of the old 
Roman Church before it was corrupted by the papal 
innovations." 

Again : the apostolic origin of the Waldenses is dis- 
tinctly stated, as maintained by themselves, by Com- 
menius, who published the Discipline of the Churches of 
Bohemia in 1644. In the year 1457, a company of the 
Bohemian Hussites separated themselves from the Calix- 



Origin of the Waldenses. 149 

tines ; and in order to procure a regular ministry they 
sent three of their pastors to the regular Waldenses to 
obtain ordination. And they received instruction and 
ordination from Stephen, a Waldensean pastor, assisted by 
other ministers. 

In his report of this affair, Commenius says : " Where- 
upon all those who were yet left of Huss' 
r n i. • • n j 'j/l j' ' Allies Chs. of 

followers, being inflamed with a divine Piedmont ^ 3 ^ 

zeal, took courage, and separating them- 
selves from the Calixtines, or pretended Hussites, in the 
year 1457, they happily set up distinct meetings in several 
places, supported only by the Divine assistance, as also a 
distinct consistory ; for, a little before those times, some 
part of the Waldenses being driven out of France, came 
and settled themselves in the confines of Austria, with 
one or two of their Bishops, to whom these Bohemians 
sent deputies, who declared to them their intention ; de- 
siring their counsel, and a Christian union with them : 
the Waldenses, on the other hand, commending their pur- 
pose, advised them, that if they desired to have those as- 
semblies that embraced the pure doctrine of the Gospel to 
be ^preserved from being dissipated, they ought to take 
care never to want faithful pastors. Wherefore that they 
ought not to expect } til some who had their ordination 
from Rome should, by their love to truth, be brought 
over to them, who might ordain pastors for them, but 
rather ordain them themselves, as occasion should offer. 
And forasmuch as the said Waldenses declared that they 
had lawful Bishops among them, and a lawful and unin- 
terrupted succession from the apostles themselves, they very 
solemnly created three of our ministers bishops, conferring 
upon them the power of ordaining ministers, though they 



150 The Ancient Waldenses. 

did not think fit to take upon them the name of bishops, 
because of the anti-christian abuse of that name, contenting 
themselves with the name of elders" 

Thus we see that the ancient Waldenses claimed a 

LAWFUL AND UNINTERRUPTED SUCCESSION FROM THE 

apostles themselves. How contemptible the sectarian 
hate that would originate the Waldenses with Rome ! and 
thereby accuse them of falsehood in claiming an apostolic 
origin. 

In answer to the charge of some, that they originated 

with Peter Waldo, Dr. Allix remarks : " Wherefore that 

I may, once for all, clear this matter, I 

P' % °d* i ^192 sa y> ^ rs *> *^ a ^ ** * s a, bsolutely false, that 
these churches were ever founded by Pe- 
ter Waldo. Let them show us any author of that time 
who asserts that Peter Waldo ever preached in the dio- 
cese of Italy, or that he founded any church there. Let 
them produce any sure tradition of that people referring 
the original of their churches to Peter Waldo. Those 
who wrote at that time do not tell us anything like this, 
no more than they who lived after. Wherefore we must 
needs conclude it a pure forgery to look upon Walda as 
the person who first brought the Reformation into Italy 
we now find there. I own, indeed, that Peter Waldo's 
taking care to have the Holy Scriptures translated into the 
vulgar tongue, the churches of Italy reaped much benefit 
from that version, whereof we have to this day some old 
copies in the library of the University of Cambridge. But 
this does not, in the least, infer that Waldo ought to be 
considered as the founder of them. I say, further, that 
by the acknowledgment of the enemies themselves of the 
Waldenses, it is absolutely false that these churches are of 



Origin of the Waldenses. 151 

no older standing than Peter Waldo. For this we have the 
confession of Reinerius, an inquisitor, who lived before the 
middle of the thirteenth century. He ingenuously ac- 
knowledged i that the heresy he calls Vaudois, or poor 
people of Lyons, was of great antiquity. Among all sects/ 
sayeth he (chap. 4), i that either are, or have been, there 
is none more dangerous to the Church than that of the 
Leonists, and that for three reasons : The first is, because 
it is the sect that is of the longest standing of any ; for 
some say it hath been continued down ever since the time of 
Pope Sylvester, and others, ever since that of the apostles. 
The second is, because it is the most general of all sects ; 
for scarcely is there any country to be found where this 
sect hath not spread itself/ " 

Once more, the Waldensean claim to apostolic origin is 
found in the preface of their translation of the Bible, as 
given by D' Anvers, as follows : " In the 

preface to the French Bible, and the first ,. nvei ^ on a P~ 
r # > tisni, p. 341. 

that ever was printed, they say that they 

have always had the full enjoyment of that heavenly truth 
contained in the Holy Scriptures, ever since they w r ere en- 
riched with the same by the apostles themselves, having, 
in fair manuscripts, preserved the entire Bible in their 
native tongue, from generation to generation. — Mori. 
Hist, p. 14." 

In this Waldensean record w r e have two very important 
historic facts stated : first, that the Waldenses claimed a 
regular succession from the apostles; and second, that 
they preserved the entire Bible, in manuscripts, all the time 
from the apostolic age. What now becomes of the pre- 
sumptuous claim of Romanists, that if it had not been for 
them the Bible would have been lost ? 



152 The Ancient Waldenses. 

Starting in America, in the year 1870, we have followed 
the chain of Baptist history back through the persecu- 
tions endured by them in Virginia and Massachusetts, to 
the planting of the American colonies; and from the 
shores of America we have traced the same chain unbro- 
ken, across the waves of the mighty Atlantic, to England 
and Wales, where our fathers bore noble testimony to Bap- 
tist principles under the bloody reigns of the British mon- 
archs who swayed the scepters of both church and state ; 
and from thence we have followed the same chain of suc- 
cession to Holland, where Richard Blunt received baptism 
from the pastor of a church whose descent was from the 
ancient Waldenses ; and still following up this succession, 
from the Netherlands back into Germany, beyond the 
dawn of the Reformation of the sixteenth century, where 
the ancient Waldensean Baptists were found all alone 
battling, with Spartan valor, against the over-mastering 
tide of Popish usurpations; and, still ascending the same 
historic stream, we reach the poetic valleys of Piedmont, 
where the altar-fires of our holy religion burned with un- 
dimmed luster during the dreary period of twelve hun- 
dred and sixty prophetic days. 

Surrounded by these mountain bulwarks, these faithful 
witnesses of Jesus raised their songs of high-sounding 
praises to their Redeemer, and preached in rustic strains 
that same glad-tiding which was announced by the angels 
f to the affrighted shepherds of Bethlehem's plains. And 
from these soul-enrapturing scenes in the Alpine valleys, 
we have still ascended within the very shadow of the 
apostolic age, back to the classic ground of Roman elo- 
quence where the Novatians raised the standard of pro- 
test and bore aloft the banner of Jesus Christ against the 



Origin of the Waldenses. 153 

usurpations of the rising Papacy. Here we behold the 
stern and unyielding Novatians, who are the real ances- 
tors of the Baptists, clothed in the heavenly armor and 
battling against the heathen world long before the haughty 
pontiff of Rome had usurped the seat and authority of 
Almighty God, and hurled his thundering anathemas 
from the seven-hilled city against the trembling nations 
of earth. Here, I say, we find ourselves connected, by 
the chain of historic succession, to the ancient Novatians 
who boldly resisted the the advances of Antichrist toward 
the dominion of the world. 

But shall we stop here, without learning the origin of 
the Baptists? No; let us penetrate into the still more 
"remote depths of antiquity," until we shall reach the 
fountain-head of this healing stream, w r hich has watered 
the earth for more than eighteen hundred years. 

But where did the Novatians originate? The answer 
is found in the next chapter. 



154 The JJovatians. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE NOVATIANS. 

1. The Churches called "Novatian Churches " did not 

Originate with Novatian. 

2. The Origin of the Novatians. 

Section I. — The churches called "novatian 

CHUKCHES " DID NOT ORIGINATE WITH NOVATIAN. 

"Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day 
shall not come, except there come a falling 
away first, and that manner of sin be re- 
vealed, the sun of perdition." 

The mystery of iniquity had begun his work of death 
even in the time of Paul's ministry. Corruptions were 
introduced into the early churches at a very early period. 
This was in fulfillment of predictions of Christ and the 
apostles, that false prophets should arise and deceive 
many, and, if possible, deceive the very elect. And that 
grievous wolves will appear among the flock, or Church of 
Christ, and that even church members would arise speak- 
ing perverse things to draw disciples after them. Histo- 
rians and theologians have been accustomed to appeal to 
the practice of the Christians of the second and third cen- 
turies, as of almost equal authority with the word of God 
itself. This is the fatal mistake which has aided to inun- 
date the world with Catholic superstitions. Concerning the 
records of the ancient church, the learned Isaac Taylor 
says : " If at any time, or if in any particular instance, the 



^Novatian not the Founder of the JNovaiians. 155 



authority of the ancient church is to be 

, ,, -, -, i ,-. -, Taylor's Ancient 

urged upon the modern church, then surely c ^ 47 

there is a pertinence in turning to the 
apostolic prophesies of perversions, corruptions, apostacies, 
quickly to spring within the sacred inclosure itself, which 
meet us at the threshold, and seem to bring us under a 
most solemn obligation to look to it, lest, amid the fervors 
of an indiscriminate reverence, we seize for imitation the 
very things which the apostles foresaw and forewarned 
the church of as fatal errors." This timely warning of 
this eminent author points out to us the danger of em- 
bracing errors because of their antiquity. While the 
flood of corruptions was pouring upon the ancient churches, 
and many were being overwhelmed by it, God had faith- 
ful witnesses all the time to withstand this tide of error, 
and contended earnestly for the faith delivered to the 
saints. And prominently among these witnesses the No- 
vatians appear, bearing their unflinching testimony for 
Christ. As to N ovatian himself, he is so fearfully mis- 
represented by his enemies that it is somewhat difficult to 
give a correct account of him. He was a presbyter, or 
elder, in the church at Rome before the rise of the Roman 
Catholic Church. Cornelius, the rival and implacable 
enemy of Novatian, was elected bishop, or pastor, of the 
church at Rome in the year two hundred and fifty-one. 
He represents Novatian as having been " baptized in his 
sick bed, by aspersion." However this may be, it does 
not affect the standing of the Novatian churches, for it 
will be seen that the Novatians did not receive their origin 
or baptism from Novatian. All candid historians admit 
that Novatian was grossly misrepresented by Cornelius. 
Novatian was a man eminent for stern piety, learning and 



156 The JVovatians. 

eloquence. Dupin, the Catholic historian, says of him : 
" This author has abundance of wit, knowl- 
*' ' ' edge and eloquence; his style is pure, clean, 
and polite ; his expressions choice, his thoughts natural, 
and his way of reasoning just: he is full of citations of 
texts of Scripture that are always to the purpose : and be- 
sides, there is a great deal of order and method in those 
treatises of his we now have ; and he never speaks but 
with a world of candor and moderation." Robinson, the 
historian, says: "The history of Novatian is long, and, 
like that of all others in his condition, 
beclouded with fables and slander. The 
character of the man ought no more to be taken from 
Cyprian than his ought from the Pagans, who, by pun- 
ning on his name, called him Coprian, or the Scavenger. 
The case, in brief, was this : Novatian was an elder in 
the church at Rome. He was a man of extensive learn- 
ing, and held the same doctrine as the church did, and 
published several treatises in defense of what he believed. 
His address was eloquent and insinuating, and his morals 
w r ere irreproachable. He saw, with extreme pain, the in- 
tolerable depravity of the church. Christians, within the 
space of a very few years, were caressed by one emperor, 
and persecuted by another. In seasons of prosperity, many 
rushed into the church for base purposes. In times of ad- 
versity they denied the faith and ran back to idolatry 
again. "When the squall was over, aw r ay they came again 
to the church, with all their vices, to deprave others by 
their example. The bishops, fond of proselytes, encour- 
aged all this, and transferred the attention of Christians 
from the old confederacy for virtue, to vain shows at 
Easter, and a thousand other Jewish ceremonies, adulter- 



JVovatian not the Founder of the JVovatians. 157 

ated, too, with paganism. On the death of Bishop Fa- 
bian, Cornelius, a brother elder, and a vehement partisan 
for taking in the multitude, was put in nomination. No- 
vatian opposed him ; but as Cornelius carried his election, 
and he saw no prospect of reformation, but, on the con- 
trary, a tide of immorality pouring into the church, he 
withdrew, and a great many with him. Cornelius, irri- 
tated by Cyprian, who was just in the same condition, 
through the remonstrances of virtuous men at Carthage, 
and who was exasperated beyond measure with one of his 
elders named Novatus, who had quitted Carthage and 
had gone to Rome to espouse the cause of Novatian, called 
a council, and got a sentence of excommunication passed 
against Novatian. In the end, Novatian formed a church 
and was elected bishop. Great numbers followed his ex- 
ample, and all over the empire Puritan churches were con- 
stituted, and flourished through the succeeding two hun- 
dred years. Afterward, when penal laws obliged them to 
lurk in corners, and worship God in private, they were 
distinguished by a variety of names, and a succession of 
them continued till the Reformation." 

Thus we see that Novatian made a noble stand against 
the growing corruptions in the church at Rome, which 
resulted in the division of the church and the formation 
of another, over which Novatian was elected pastor. It is 
not known that Novatian aided in the formation of any 
other church than this. He only organized, and was pas- 
tor of a church at Rome. Laxity of discipline, especially 
the reception of those who had lapsed into idolatry, had 
greatly disturbed the churches in the cities. And when 
Novatian made his stand^for virtue and church dis- 
cipline, " great numbers followed his example, and all over 



158 The Jfovatians. 



the empire Puritan churches were constituted" So we dis- 
cover that Novatian had nothing more to do with the or- 
ganization of the Novatian churches throughout the em- 
pire than the force of example. And, as in all such cases, 
no doubt, when the line of separation was drawn, some 
churches sided with the popular party, while others were 
numbered with those called Novatian. And, as to the 
case of Novatian himself, his lack of baptism, if the charge 
be correct, would no more affect the succession of the No- 
vatians than the lack of baptism upon the part of a few 
"Baptist" ministers who have received "alien immer- 
sion." 

Again, Mr. Robinson says : " They say Novatian was 

the first anti-pope ; and yet there was, at 
Robinson's JEccl. ,1 , , . . .i i r» 

p 12 - that time, no pope in the modern sense of 

the word. They call Novatian the author 
of the heresy of Puritanism ; yet they know Tertullian 
had quitted the church near fifty years before for the same 
reason, and Privatus, who was an old man in the time of 
Novatian, had, with several more, repeatedly remonstrated 
against the alterations taking place, and, as they could 
get no redress, had dissented and formed separate congre- 
gations. They tax Novatian with being the parent of an 
innumerable multitude of congregations of Puritans all 
over the empire ; and yet he had no other influence over 
any, than what his good example gave him. People saw 
every-where the same cause of complaint, and groaned for 
relief, and when one man made a stand for virtue, the 
crisis had arrived — people saw the propriety of the cure, 
and applied the same means to their own relief." 

Thus it is clearly made out that Novatian was not the 
founder of the churches called by his name. 



Origin of the JNov avians. 159 



Section II. — Origin of the novatians. 

We have already shown, upon good authority, that the 
Waldenses were descended from the Novatians, and ob- 
served the same faith and practice ; or, in other words, 
the same class of Christians who were called Novatians 
in Italy, were called Waldenses in the valleys of the Alps. 

As the modern denominations lay no claim to any his- 
toric connection with the Novatians, it will not require 
much labor to show their Baptist character and connec- 
tion with the apostolic churches. 

The Novatian period extends from about the middle of 
the third century to the middle of the fifth — about two 
hundred years. 

It is not to be understood that the Novatians began 
and ended with these periods ; but that the witnesses for 
Christ, in the Roman empire, were called Novatians 
during the period named. They did not call themselves 
Novatians at the first, but this name was given by their 
enemies as a term of reproach. 

What is termed by historians the Novatian rupture, did 
not take place on account of a difference in doctrine, so 
far as the church ordinances were concerned, but on ac- 
count of the growing corruptions in some of the churches, 
in consequence of the lax discipline in the reception of 
apostates. 

When historians use the term Catholic Church with 
reference to these times — about the third century — they 
have no allusion to what is now called the Roman Catho- 
lic Church ; for at that time no such church existed. But 
in the use of the term Catholic, they only intended to re- 
fer to the church in general. And it was this party, 



160 The JJovatians. 

which claimed to be the Catholic, orthodox, or general 
church, in the third century, that in after times grew to 
be the Romish Church. 

Concerning the cause which led to the division called 

the Novatian rupture, Mr. Orchard remarks : " When 

Decius came to the throne, in 249, he re- 

l I 52 ' 9. u i re( ^ by edicts, all persons in the em- 
pire to conform to Pagan worship. Forty 
years' toleration had greatly increased professors, and 
they were found in every department of the govern- 
ment. They had been so long unaccustomed to trials, that 
the lives of many were unsuited to suffering. Decius' 
edicts rent asunder the churches; multitudes apostatized, 
and many were martyred. In two years the trial abated, 
when many apostates applied for restoration to Christian 
fellowship, and sanctioned their application by letters, 
written by some eminent Christians who had been mar- 
tyrs during the persecution. The flagrancy of some apos- 
tates occasioned an opposition to their re-admission." 

This slack discipline has been the curse of the churches, 
more or less, in every age. No church can prosper which 
has not vital action sufficient to throw off the corrupt or 
foreign matter. For some time before the " Novatian rup- 
ture" there had been a growing tendency in some churches 
toward ministerial usurpation ; and the leaven of the mys- 
tery of iniquity was at work, which finally produced Anti- 
christ in his full proportions. The time for the " falling 
away," spoken of by Paul, had now fully come. For it 
matters not which party is in the majority when a separa- 
tion occurs, it is always true that the party which departs 
from the faith has fallen away. 

It is generally admitted by historians, whether Catholic 



Origin of the JSfovatians. 161 

or Protestant, that the Catholic party departed from the 
simplicity of the Gospel, at least in point of morals. And 
it appears that, previous to the separation, many persons 
had deplored the growing corruptions in some of the 
churches; and they hailed with delight the earliest oppor- 
tunity of bearing testimony for Christ by rejecting from 
their fellowship those individuals and churches which had 
departed from the simplicity of the faith. 

Gieseler, in his Ecclesiastical History, gives the follow- 
ing account of the Novatians : " The Pres- 
byter Novatian, at Rome, w T as dissatisfied , ' ' ' 
» ™ 7 7 vol. I, p. 163. 

with the choice of the Bishop Cornelius (A. 
D. 251), on account of his lenity toward the Lapsi. In the 
controversy which now ensued, Novatian, chiefly supported 
by the Presbyter Novatus, of Carthage, returned to the old 
principle, that those w r ho had once fallen from the faith 
could in no case be received again. The church being 
divided by this schism, Novatian was chosen bishop by 
the one party in opposition to Cornelius. Though the 
other bishops, and especially Cyprian at Carthage, and 
Dionysius at Alexandria, we're on the side of Cornelius, 
great numbers in all parts joined the stricter party ." 

This very important testimony from Gieseler, the learned 
German historian, shows that, after the division of the 
church at Rome, Novatian w 7 as chosen pastor or bishop 
of the stricter party; and when the division extended 
throughout the empire, "great numbers in all parts joined 
the stricter party" And this establishes the fact that these 
great numbers in all parts did not originate with Novatian. 
But their origin is w T ith the apostolic churches. And even 
the church in Rome, over which Novatian w r as pastor, did 
not receive its baptism nor origin from him. But this 



162 The JVovatians. 



church derived its origin from the original apostolic 

church at Rome to whom Paul addressed his letter to the 

Romans. In fact, the Novatian party were that part of 

the original church at Rome, founded by the apostles, 

which preserved the purity of discipline and worship 

against the growing apostacy which sided with Cornelius. 

And this firm stand of the Novatians at Rome for virtue, 

furnished an example for others. Orchard remarks that : 

" On account of the church's severity of 

7 t rr ^ discipline, the example was followed by 

many, and churches of this order flourished 

in the greatest part of those provinces which had received 

the Gospel." 

Therefore, instead of Novatian being the founder of this 
class of Christians, he only bore testimony, with others, in 
favor of the purity of discipline which had been preserved 
from the time of the apostles. 

To show that Novatian did not act alone in his early 
stand for virtue and truth, we here insert a statement from 
Neander, as follows : 

" As his principles are so clearly to be explained from 

the sternness of his Christian character, 
Neand. His. Chr. i T .. ,i. . , 

r> 7 j> svL -iAo an d as he was acting, in this instance, in 

the spirit of a whole party of the church 

existing at that time, there is the less need to resort to an 

explanation, deduced from an external cause, which is 

supported by no historical proof." 

This statement of Neander was made in refutation of the 

charge that Novatian received his principles from the Stoic 

philosophy. And it shows that, instead of his being the 

originator of these principles, he only acted in concert with 



Origin of the JVovsitians. 163 

u a whole party of the church" which existed before the 
" Novatian rupture." 

And it is evident that if the Novatians had no just claims 
to be regarded as the primitive church, they would not 
have dared, in the face of such powerful and bitter ene- 
mies, to claim to be the only Church of Christ on earth. 
Upon this point, Neander remarks : 

" The controversy with the party of Novatian turned 
upon two general points : 

1. On the principles of penitence. Neand. Ch. Hi*., 

2. On what constitutes the idea of the p. 145. 
essence of a true church." 

In regard to the first point, which Neander calls " pen- 
itence" — owing to the fearful corruptions which resulted 
from the indiscriminate reception of those who had apos- 
tatized into paganism and idolatry — the Novatians refused 
to restore such heinous offenders to church fellowship; 
but they did not deny that such might obtain forgiveness 
from God. 

And in regard to the second point of difference between 
the Novatians and the popular party, which involved the 
Church question, Neander has the following : 

"As far as concerns the second point in dispute, the 

notion of the church, Novatian held the 

n n . . A ,i ii? -x Neand. Ch. His.. 

following opinion : As the mark of purity 147 ' 

and holiness is one of the essential marks 

of a true church, every church which, neglecting the 

right use of church discipline, suffers those who have 

violated their baptismal vow by great sins to remain in 

the midst of her, or to receive them into her again, ceases 

thereby to be a true church, and loses all the rights 

and advantages of such a church. The Novatianists, 



164 The .Novatians. 



therefore, as they claimed to be the only unstained, pure 
church, called themselves oi Jcatharoi, — ( the pure/ " 

Since it is allowed on all hands that even the enemies 
of the Novatians did not charge them with impurity in 
doctrine or discipline, but only with schism, and that the 
Catholic party were corrupt in discipline, the claim of the 
Novatians ought, therefore, to be conceded to them, that 
they were the pure, uncorrupted apostolic church. 

On this claim the editor of the Religious Encyclopedia 

remarks : " Novatians ; a numerous body of Protestant 

dissenters from the Church of Rome, in 
Reliqious Enciic.* .% ,1 • j -i .,i , j. 

JL„ y ' the third century, who, notwithstanding 

the representations of their adversaries, 
have some just claims to be regarded as the pure, uncor- 
rupted, and apostolic Church of Christ. They called 
themselves Cathari — that is, the pure; but they received 
their name of Novatians: from their adversaries, after their 
distinguished leader Novatian, who, in the year 251, was 
ordained the pastor of a church in the city of Rome, which 
maintained no fellowship w r ith the (so-called) Catholic 
party." 

This distinguished author affirms that the Novatians 
have "just claims to be regarded as the pure, uncorrupted 
and apostolic Church of Christ." This unites the Baptist 
history to the apostolic churches of Jesus Christ in the 
first century. 

After a thorough examination on this point, Orchard, 
the historian, makes the following statement concerning 
the Novatians : " The churches thus formed upon a plan 

of strict communion and rigid discipline, 
wti^b^'' obtained the reproach of Puritans ; they 

were the oldest body of Christian churches 



Origin of the JVovatians. 165 

of which we have any account; and a succession of them, 
we shall prove, has continued to the present day. No- 
vatian's example had a powerful influence, and Puritan 
churches rose in different parts in quick succession. So 
early as 254, these dissenters are complained of as having 
infected France with their doctrines, which will aid us in 
the Albigensean churches, where the same severity of dis- 
cipline is traced and reprobated." 

Yes, no doubt, the jSovatians were descendants of, and 
formed part of, the oldest body of Christian churches, 
which were established by Christ and the apostles. And 
Mr. Cramp, in his late history, has the following : " We 

may safely infer that they abstained from 

jj .,-, ,1 ,. 1 ,i , Cramp' *s Baptist 

compliance with the innovation, and that tt- ^ 

r i > Mis., p. 59. 

the Novatian churches were what are now 

called Baptist churches, adhering to the apostolic and 

primitive practice." 

Notwithstanding all the false and bitter charges of their 
enemies, the proof is positive, that the Novatians, in every 
element of church organization, were Baptists, and de- 
scended from the primitive apostolic churches. 

It should be observed that the Donatists in Africa, in 
the fourth century, are generally admitted to be the same 
class of Christians with the Novatians. 

When the division occurred at Carthage, similar to that 
at Rome, that party which adhered to the purity of church 
discipline and primitive practice in the administration of 
the ordinances, were called Donatists. 

Cryspin, the French historian, affirms that they hold 
together in the following things : 

66 First: For purity of church mem- D> Anvers on Bap- 
bers, by asserting that none ought to be twn y p. 223. 



166 The Jtfovatians. 

admitted into churches but such as were visibly true 
believers and real saints. 

Secondly: For the purity of church discipline, as the 
application of church-censures, and keeping out such as 
had apostatized or scandalously sinned. 

Thirdly: They both agreed in asserting the power, 
rights, and privileges of particular ' churches, against 
anti-Christian encroachments of presbyters, bishops, and 
synods. 

Fourthly : That they baptized again those whose first 
baptism they had ground to doubt." 

The foregoing, as found in D'Anvers on Baptism, ex- 
hibits the fact that the Donatists were but the Novatians 
of Africa. And although they were called by different 
names on different continents, yet they were one and the 
same class of Christians, who were the successors of the 
original churches that withstood the mighty flood of cor- 
ruptions which beat upon the Church of Christ in the 
third, fourth, and fifth centuries. 

And that the Novatians adhered to the primitive prin- 
ciples of the first century, is admitted by Mr. Waddington, 
in his History of the Church. In speaking of the Nova- 
tians, whom he dignifies with the title " Sectaries," he 
remarks : " And those rigid principles 

Clmrl ° f W which had characterized and sanctified 
the church in the first century were aban- 
doned to the profession of schismatic sectaries in the 
third." 

This very important statement of George Waddington, 
the learned Episcopal historian, establishes two import- 
ant points : 

1. That the Novatians, called Sectaries by their ene- 



Origin of the JNovatians. 167 

mies, PRESERVED THOSE RIGID PRINCIPLES WHICH HAD 
CHARACTERIZED AND SANCTIFIED THE CHURCH IN THE 
FIRST CENTURY." 

2. That the Catholic, or orthodox party, "abandoned " 

THESE PRINCIPLES " TO THE PROFESSION OF SCHISMATIC 
SECTARIES IN THE THIRD " CENTURY. 

Therefore, as the Catholics, or orthodox, were the party 
which abandoned the primitive principles of Christianity, 
they were undoubtedly the party that jell away or aposta- 
tized from the truth. But, on the other hand, as the 
Novatians were the party which maintained the primitive 
principles of Christianity, they must be regarded as the 
original Church, in spite of the pompous pretentions of 
the so-called Catholics. 

While it is an admitted fact that the term Novatians, 
which was applied to the early witnesses for Christ, was 
derived from Novatian, yet it is not true that he was 
their founder, or that the church of which he was pastor 
was the first church in the separation from the popular 
religion. There were other churches before this, inde- 
pendent of the so-called orthodox, which bore the same 
testimony for original principles. 

I here call attention to a statement from Robinson, in- 
troduced in the former section, as follows: "They say 
Novatian was the first anti-pope ; and yet 
there was, at that time, no pope in the Eoh ^ Eccl Res -> 
modern sense of the word. They call 
Novatian the author of the heresy of Puritanism ; and yet 
they know that Tertullian had quitted the church near 
fifty years before for the same reason ; and Privatus, who 
was an old man in the time of Novatian, had, with several 
more, repeatedly remonstrated against the alterations tak- 



168 The Jsfovatians. 



ing place, and as they could get no redress, had dissented, 
and formed separate congregations. They tax Novatian 
with being parent of an innumerable multitude of con- 
gregations of Puritans all over the empire ; and yet he 
had no other influence over any than what his good ex- 
ample gave him. People saw every-where the same cause 
of complaint, and groaned for relief; and when one man 
made a stand for virtue, the crisis had arrived — people 
saw the propriety of the cure, and applied the same 
means to their own relief." 

Thus we discover that even before the time of Nova- 
tian, there existed " separate congregations " which bore 
testimony against the corruptions of the popular party. 
It is a fact, conceded by all historians, that the primitive 
churches, with few exceptions, down to the time of Nova- 
tian, preserved the church ordinances as they were origi- 
nally delivered by inspiration. 

The corruptions had respect mainly to the lax discip- 
line which prevailed, especially in the city churches. In 
other words, all parties acknowledge that the main body 
of the early churches, prior to the middle of the third 
century, were true churches of Christ, and that they had 
their origin from Christ and the apostles. And as it has 
been fully shown, upon good authority, that the Nova- 
tians had their origin from these primitive churches, there- 
fore their succession reaches back through the primitive 
churches to Christ and the apostles. 

In regard to these early Baptist churches, Mr. Robin- 
son remarks, that " during the first three centuries, Chris- 
tian congregations, all over the East, sub- 
p 55 C **'' sisted in separate, independent bodies, un- 
supported by Government, and o6nse- 



Origin of the JVovatians. 169 

quently without any secular power over one another. All 
this time they were baptized [Baptist] churches, and 
though all the fathers of the first four ages down ta 
Jerome were of Greece, Syria, and Africa; and though 
they give great numbers of histories of the baptism of 
adults, yet there is not one record of the baptism of a 
child till the year 370, when Galates, the dying son of the 
Emperor Valens, was baptized, by order of a monarch 
who swore he would not be contradicted." 

It was the custom of the old English writers to use the 
word baptized where we use the word baptist. So we 
have the historic fact, stated in the foregoing, that these 
early churches were Baptist churches. 

From the shores of America we have followed the foot- 
prints of the Baptist denomination back through England, 
Holland, and Germany, to the valleys of Piedmont, and 
thence to Italy and the land of Judea, in the apostolic 
age. In all our examinations we find no flaw or break 
in the chain of our denominational succession. But it is 
admitted that our ancestors were called by different names 
in different ages of the world. We now T find ourselves 
connected with the primitive churches of the first and 
second centuries. And it is admitted by ail thai these 
churches bore the apostolic character. They were mod- 
eled after the original Church founded by Christ himself 
at Jerusalem. 

In making out the chain of our succession, Ave have not 
embraced all, in different parts, who bore the Baptist 
character; but we only designed to present the most direct 
line of our connection with the apostolic churches with- 
out the introduction of a great many names. 

Thus we have reached the fountain-head of that mighty 



170 The Jtfovatians. 



stream of Scriptural churches flowing down from Jerusa- 
lem through the desert gloom of more than eighteen cen- 
turies, and watering the famishing world with the pure 
Gospel of the River of Life. Here is found the light-house 
of the world, erected upon the Rock of Eternal Ages, cast- 
ing its beams of heavenly light far over the stormy seas, 
while gross darkness enveloped the world, and the multi- 
tudes were wondering after the Beast. Notwithstanding 
we have traced our denominational line of succession di- 
rectly up to the apostolical age, yet this would avail us 
nothing if we are found destitute of the peculiar charac- 
teristics which distinguished the apostolic churches. We 
will, therefore, proceed in our next to examine the Bap- 
tist peculiarities by the light of the New Testament and 
the practice of the apostolic churches. 



(Baptist Succession. 171 



CHAPTER VIII. 

BAPTIST PECULIAEITY FIEST— JESUS THE FOUNDER 
AND HEAD. 

1. Peculiarity first Tested by the Bible. 

2. Peculiarity first Identified in present Baptist teaching. 

Section I. — Baptist peculiarity first tested by 
the bible. 

From the shores of America we have followed the foot- 
prints of the Baptist denomination back through England, 
Holland, Germany, the valleys of Piedmont, and Italy, 
up to the land of Judea, in the apostolic age. We have 
found our denominational chain of succession unbroken, 
though the same people were at different times called by 
different names. We have now reached the fountain-head 
of that mighty stream of Scriptural churches flowing down 
from Jerusalem through the desert gloom of more than 
eighteen centuries, and watering the famishing world with 
the pure Gospel of the River of Life. Here may be found 
the establishment of the Church — the light-house of the 
w T orld — erected upon the Bock of Eternal Ages, and cast- 
ing its beams of heavenly light far over the stormy seas 
of moral darkness, while the multitudes of mankind were 
enveloped in darkness. 

Notwithstanding we have traced our denominational 
line of succession directly up to the apostolic age, yet this 
would avail us nothing if we are found destitute of those 
peculiar characteristics which distinguished the early 



172 Jesus the Founder and Head: 

churches. In chapter first, we laid down seven Baptist 
peculiar characteristics which now distinguish them from 
all the parties of Christendom. We now proceed to ex- 
amine these peculiarities, one by one, by the light of In- 
spiration, to see if they are sustained by the word of God 
and examples of the apostolic churches. It was remarked 
in the outset that no denomination, except the Baptist 
claims Jesus Christ, in person, as their founder and head. 
Other denominations look to uninspired men for their ori- 
gin. Does the Bible sustain the Baptist doctrine that Jesus 
Christ himself established his own church? To the law 
and testimony : The Lord spoke by the mouth of Daniel 
the prophet, and said : " And in the days of these kings 

, shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, 

Dan, 2 : 44. 

which shall never be destroyed : and the 

kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall 
break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it 
shall stand forever." It is generally admitted that this 
prophecy points to Jesus Christ, who is the God of heaven 
who was manifested in the flesh. If this be correct, and 
it can not be reasonably doubted, then it was declared by 
the prophet, that Jesus Christ, the God of heaven, should 
set up the everlasting kingdom. Does this mean that Abra- 
ham should set up the kingdom ? that Moses should set 
it up ? that John the Baptist should set it up? that Peter, 
or all the apostles together, should set it up ? No ; this 
work was delegated neither to angels nor men. It was 
peculiarly the work of the God of heaven. Some assume 
the position that the God of heaven established his king- 
dom on earth by proxy — by human agents — as the God 
of heaven built the temple by Solomon, and wrote the 
Bible by inspired men. But it must be remembered, that 



Tested by the (Bible. 173 

when God performed these great works through human 
agents, those agents were especially appointed by God 
himself to perform their several labors. No one but Sol- 
omon was divinely authorized to erect the first temple, 
which was a type of the Church of Christ. It would have 
been rebellion for any one else to have assumed to them- 
selves the right to build the temple. Even David, the 
highly favored king of Israel, dared not enter upon this 
work without divine permission. He earnestly desired to 
build the house of the Lord, but he would not lay one 
stone toward this work without the heavenly commission. 
Those who wrote the Scriptures were moved to this work 
by the Holy Spirit. And in the Gospel dispensation, 
when John the harbinger baptized the penitent Jews, he 
could point to his commission from heaven, and say : " He 
that sent me to baptize with water." Neither did the 
apostles assume to themselves the apostleship without the 
divine appointment; they were chosen and ordained by 
Jesus Christ. But where is the commission authorizing 
either angels or men to set up the kingdom of God ? It 
can not be found. In the vision of Nebuchadnezzar, the 
kingdom of God was symbolized by the stone which " was 
cut out without hands." 

This could not have been the case if God had delegated 
human agents to set up the kingdom. It is true that men 
were appointed to perform certain duties in connection 
with the establishment of the kingdom, but they were not 
appointed to set it up. John the Baptist was sent " to 
make ready a people prepared for the 
Lord." John did not set up the kingdom. 
He simply prepared materials from which Jesus gathered 
the first members of the kingdom. When was the king- 



174 Jesus the Founder and Head: 

dom set up ? We answer, that the setting up of the king- 
dom, with its laws and ordinances, was not an instanta- 
neous, but a gradual work. John preached the Gospel and 
prepared materials for the setting up of the kingdom, but 
Jesus Christ, soon after his own baptism in the river 
Jordan, chose the twelve apostles who were the first mem- 
bers of the organization known as the church or king- 
dom of God. 

When John beheld the triumphant church as the bride, 
the LamVs wife, under the symbol of the great city de- 
scending out of heaven from God, he saw " the names of 
the twelve apostles of the Lamb" in the 
twelve foundation stones. This shows clearly 
that the twelve apostles were the first or foundation mem- 
bers of the Church of God. A kingdom or church must, 
of necessity, have a king to rule over it, subjects to be 
ruled, and laws to be obeyed. Jesus Christ himself is the 
king, from everlasting to everlasting. The absurd idea of 
the coronation of Jesus on the day of Pentecost, is false 
and ridiculous. He possessed kingly glory with the 
Father before the world was ; he was born King of the 
Jews ; he was the " King of Israel " when 
Nathaniel met him ; and he declared him- 
self to be a king at the bar of Pilate. It is a settled 
point that Jesus Christ was king while on 
earth, before the day of Pentecost. And the 
king had subjects to be governed as soon as the apostles 
left all and followed him. The seventy disciples were soon 
added to the twelve, and the subjects of the king contin- 
ued to increase during his ministry. But when were the 
laws delivered for the government of the kingdom ? As 
Moses came down and delivered the laws to govern na- 



Tested by the (Bible. 175 



tional Israel, after he had fasted forty days on the Mount, 
so Jesus Christ, after he had fasted forty days during his 
temptation in the wilderness, began to deliver the laws for 
the government of his kingdom. The Savior continued 
to deliver these laws till the night of his betrayal. 

After the Lord's Supper was instituted, then Jesus de- 
livered the kingdom, as a complete organization, to the 
disciples in the following words : "And I appoint unto 
you a kingdom, as my Father hath ap- Lu]ce22 . 29 ga 
pointed unto me; that ye may eat and 
drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones 
judging the twelve tribes of Israel." While Jesus Christ 
the king was personally present with the church, he trans- 
acted the business of the kingdom ; but he was now about 
to depart to the Father, and he delivered to his disciples 
the kingdom, or the authority to execute the laws of the 
kingdom in the absence of the King. In the same night, 
in his dedication prayer, the Savior said : " I have finished 

the work which thou gavest me to do." The T 7 * 

„-,,.-, , t John 1 / : 4. 

setting up oi the kingdom was the work as- 
signed by the Father to Jesus Christ; and as he declared 
that his work was finished, we must conclude that he had 
completed the setting up of his kingdom. This position 
is fully illustrated in the building of Solomon's Temple, 
which was a type of the Church of Christ. Solomon's 
Temple was built of stones and timbers prepared in the 
quarry and forests of Lebanon. Solomon did not bring 
rough materials and place them in the building in order to 
prepare them, as is done by modern workmen ; but each 
stone and timber was first prepared for its place, and then 
placed in the temple, and the building progressed to com- 
pletion without the sound of a hammer. The temple was 



176 Jesus the Founder and Head: 

complete, in all of its parts, before it was publicly dedicated 
to the service of God by prayer and the application of 
sacrificial blood ; likewise the Church of Christ was a com- 
plete organization, all of its laws and ordinances had been 
delivered, before it was publicly dedicated by the prayer 
of Jesus, recorded in the 17th of John, and the applica- 
tion of his own blood which was shed upon the tree of 
the Cross. The injunction requiring the apostles to tarry 
at Jerusalem until they were indued with power from on 
high, had no reference to the setting up of the kingdom, 
but to the power to speak with tongues and remember all 
the previous teaching of the Savior. The Baptist position, 
that Jesus Christ was the founder of his own church, is 
supported by the language of the Savior himself, as follows : 
" And I say also unto thee, that thou art Peter, and upon 

ajr ± ' , n _, this rock will I build my church: and the 
Matt, lb: 18. J „ . ,_ _ __ .-, . 

gates ol hell shall not prevail against it." 

Did the Savior mean that Peter will build my church? 
that Luther will build my church? that Calvin will build 
my church? that John Wesley will build my church? or 
that Alexander Campbell will build my church ? No. 
He declared, I will build my church; and a church or 
kingdom built by any one else is not the kingdom of 
Christ. As already remarked, the establishment of the 
church as a complete organization was a gradual work 
from the calling of the apostles to the establishment of the 
Lord's Supper. This work had been begun before the 
Savior said, upon this rock will I build my church ; and he 
went forward to complete and establish his church upon 
himself as the only foundation which is able to support 
his kingdom. The Baptist position has been fully sus- 
tained, that Jesus Christ is the founder of his own church, 



Tested by the (Bible. 177 

and that it was set up during his personal ministry on 
earth. The Savior said : " The law and the prophets were 
until John: since that time the kingdom 
of God is preached, and every man presseth 
into it." This passage alone ought to silence every ob- 
jector who denies that the kingdom was set up before 
Pentecost. The Savior began his work while John was 
living, and men pressed into the kingdom before the day 
of Pentecost. For the further discussion of the setting 
up of the kingdom, the reader is referred to the second 
chapter of my Text-Book on Campbellism. Again, are 
the Baptists right in claiming Jesus Christ as the only 
head of the church? In ancient times the Baptists were 
called, .by way of derision, the Acephali — the headless — 
because they acknowledged no human head. That Jesus 
Christ should bo, recognized as the head of his disciples, 
as their great teacher, was established by the voice of the 
Father when he spoke in the hearing of the affrighted 
disciples on the mount of transfiguration; 
he said : " This is my beloved Son, in whom 
I am well pleased; hear ye him." Any society which ap- 
peals to any other authority than that of Jesus Christ, in 
cases of discipline, does not recognize him as its head and 
law-giver. The same position is affirmed by the apostle 
Paul, when he declares that God "hath put all things 
under his feet, and gave him to be the head ' • i* ■•• 
over all things to the church, which is his ' 

body, the fullness in him which filleth all in all." And 
again, the same apostle says : " But speaking the truth in 
love, may grow up into him in all things, 
which is the head, even Christ : from whom 
the whole body fitly joined together, and compacted by 



178 Jesus the Founder .and Head: 

that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual 
working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of 
the body unto the edifying of itself in love." Once more, 
writing to the Colossians, Paul affirms that " Jesus Christ 
is the head of the body, the church, who is 
the beginning, the first-born from the dead ; 
that in all things he might have the pre-eminence." From 
the foregoing, and many similar passages, it is abundantly 
proved that Jesus Christ is alone to be regarded as the 
founder and head of his own kingdom. The idea of the 
body of Christ, his church, having a human head, is ut- 
terly preposterous. In fact, whenever any one presumes 
to occupy the place, either as the founder or head of the 
Church of Christ, he has partaken of the character and 
prerogative of Antichrist. We now reaffirm that the Bap- 
tist denomination is the only one on earth which claims 
Jesus Christ in person as its founder and head. 



Section II. — Baptist authority claiming jesus 

CHRIST AS THE FOUNDER AND HEAD OF THE 
CHURCH. 

It is almost a work of supererogation to collect testi- 
mony on this point; because, all who have even a slight 
acquaintance with Baptist doctrine, ought to know that 
it is a fundamental principle with Baptists to claim Jesus 
Christ as their only founder and head. But, as some are 
prone to pervert Baptist views, it may not be amiss to 
gather a few authorities on this important point. 

In the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, it is said: 
Bel. Denom. U. " The Lord Jesus Christ is the head of the 
S. G. B., p. 51. Church, in whom, by the appointment of 



Claimed by (Baptist Authorities. 179 

the Father, all power for the calling, institution, order, or 
government of the church, is invested in a supreme and 
sovereign manner." This is but the testimony of all the 
Baptists in the world. 

The author of the Religious Encyclopedia, in this point 
testifies as follows: "They [Baptists] think that the 
Christian Church, properly so called, was not visibly or- 
ganized in the family of Abraham, nor in the wilderness 

of Sinai, but by the ministry of Christ him- 

if j i? i_- j.i j xi_ j. 'j. Religious Encyc. 

sell, and of his apostles; and that it was * y 

then constituted of such, and of such only, 
as made a credible profession of repentance from sin and 
faith in the Savior." And on the same subject the Bap- 
tist Manual, published by the American Baptist Publica- 
tion Society, remarks : " We acknowledge ». 

/. -ii ™ . „ ™ n i Bapt.Man.,v. 82. 

no founder but Christ." lhus we find, 

that the Baptists of the present day possess the Bible char- 
acteristic, that Jesus Christ in person set up his own 
kingdom. 



180 The (Bible as the (Rule of Conduct: 



CHAPTER IX. 

BAPTIST PECULIARITY SECOND— THE BIBLE AS THE 
EULE OF CONDUCT. 

1. Peculiarity Second tested by the Bible. 

2. Peculiarity Second identified in Present Baptist 

Teaching. 

Section I. — Baptist peculiarity second tested 

BY THE BIBLE. 

Nearly all parties are agreed that the Scriptures should 
be the standard of appeal; but, at the same time, many- 
have their own disciplines and confessions of faith, fixing 
the terms of union and communion. They appeal to 
these human standards in the transaction of their church 
business. There are some, however, besides Baptists, who 
of late profess to be governed by the Bible alone in their 
church affairs; but it will be found, in the sequel, that 
they reject a large part even of the New Testament from 
their standard of worship. It will be found, upon strict 
inquiry, that the Baptists are the only people who take 
the Bible alone as their rule of faith and practice in 
church matters. But is this doctrine, that the Word of 
God should be our rule of conduct, sustained by Inspi- 
ration ? 

The fact that Jesus Christ is King in his kingdom, 
ought to" establish the point, that no authority except his 
own is binding on his subjects. And it is an admitted 
fact that the Bible contains the authority or laws of Jesus 



Tested by the (Bible. 181 

Christ; therefore, the Bible alone should be the rule of 
faith and practice in his kingdom*. Jesus Christ is alone 
the Law-giver and Ruler in Zion. The doctrine that un- 
inspired men have the right to make laws for the king- 
dom of God, is pregnant with rebellion against the king. 
It appears to me that it would be as suitable for one to 
attempt to write a code of laws to govern the angels in 
heaven as to make laws to govern the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ on earth. It is evident that God the Father recog- 
nized his Son, Jesus Christ, as the Law-giver in Zion, when 
at the transfiguration he said: "This is my - 

beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; 
hear ye him." We are under no obligation to hear any 
other authority than that of Jesus in matters of religion. 
Jesus is that prophet spoken of by Moses, when he " Said 
unto the children of Israel, a prophet shall 
the Lord your God raise up unto you of 
your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear." As 
Moses was the law-giver and prophet in national Israel, so 
Jesus Christ, his great antetype, is Law-giver and Ruler 

over spiritual Israel. And " He that des- - _ ^ nn M 
n t. _. , , ,. , . , J Heb. 10: 28-31. 

pised Moses law died without mercy un- 
der two or three witnesses : Of how much sorer punish- 
ment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy, who hath 
trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the 
the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, 
an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of 
grace? For we know him that hath said, Vengeance be- 
longeth unto me, I will recompense, saith the Lord. And 
again, the Lord shall judge his people. It is a fearful 
thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is 
evident, from this connection, that those who have trod- 



182 The (Bible as the (Rule of Conduct: 

den underfoot the Son of God, are those who have des- 
pised or rejected the laws of Christ; and as those who 
despised the law of Moses died without mercy, who can 
estimate the fearful doom of those who disobey Jesus 
Christ? God said, by the mouth of Samuel the prophet, 
to king Saul, who departed somewhat from the letter 

™ ^ of the Lord's commandment : " Hath the 
lSam.15: 22,23. f\ , . , 

.Lord as great delight in burnt-oiierings 

and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Be- 
hold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than 
the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, 
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because 
thou hast rejected the word of the Lord, he hath also re- 
jected thee from being king." From these passages of 
Scripture we discover the dreadful turpitude of the sin of 
despising or disregarding the word of the Lord under any 
pretext whatever. Jesus said to the Jews : " Howbeit in 
M vain do they worship me, teaching for doc- 

trines the commandments of men." This is 
positive testimony that the commandments of men are not 
binding in matters of religion, — that they are vain wor- 
ship. Paul speaks to the same point, as follows : " Where- 
fore if ye be dead with Christ from the 
rudiments of the world, why, as though 
living in the world, are ye subject to [human] ordinances, 
(touch not ; taste not ; handle not ; which all are to perish 
with the using ;) after the commandments and doctrines 
of men? Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in 
will worship and humility, and neglecting of the body; 
not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." In this 
passage the apostle condemns, in unmeasured terms, all 
the " commandments and doctrines of men," whatever may 



Tested by the (Bible. 183 

« 

be their appearance of wisdom and humility. " For the 

wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. H „ 

^. . . . i tit . . t . 1 Cor, 3 : 19. 

For it is written, he taketn the wise m their 

own craftiness." When we are governed in religious wor- 
ship by human Disciplines, or Confessions of Faith, we are 
guilty of following the commandments and doctrines of 
men. The apostle Paul explains the use of the inspired 

Scriptures as follows: "All Scripture is rt _ _ ._ „„ 
- u ■ -4.- en a a- £4- 2^m. 3:16,17. 

given by inspiration oi (jrod ; and is profit- 
able for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruc- 
tion in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect, 
thoroughly furnished unto all gpod works." This sets 
forth the Scriptures, the Word of God, as the perfect rule 
of action, by which all acceptable service must be ren- 
dered to God. And if we adopt any other rule of action, 
we reject Jesus Christ as the only Law-giver. In fact, 
it will be the w T ords of Jesus Christ by which we shall be 
judged in that great day when the dead, small and great, 
shall stand before the throne of God ; for Jesus has de- 
clared that, "He that reject eth me, and re- „. , 

I A J ' John 12: 48,49. 

ceivetn not my words, nam one that judg- 

eth him : the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge 
him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself: 
but the Father which sent me, he gave me a command- 
ment, what I should say, and w T hat I should speak." And 
in view of being judged by the Word of God, Ave have, in 
the last chapter of Revelations, the following terrible 
warning : " For I testify unto every man 
that heareth the words of the prophecy of ' ' 

this Book, if any man shall add unto these things, God 
shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this 
Book ; and if any man shall take away from the words of 



184 The (Bible as the (Rule of Conduct : 

the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part 
out of the Book of Life, and out of the holy city, and from 
the things which are written in this Book." 

In the face of these Scriptures, how dare any one to 
adopt, as authority in religion, any rule except the Word of 
God? As the New Testament is the last "Will of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, it contains all the duties enjoined upon the 
children of God in the Christian dispensation. While the 
New Testament is our standard of appeal, we regard the 
Old Testament as necessary to confirm and establish the 
New. Thus we have found that the second Baptist pecu- 
liarity, as introduced in the first chapter of this work, is 
fully sustained by the inspired Word. 



Section II. — Peculiarity second identified in 

PRESENT BAPTIST TEACHING. 

That the Bible alone is to be regarded as the rule of 
faith and practice, all Baptists hold with unyielding te- 
nacity. 

It is true that Baptists have, at different times, writ- 
ten their views on the prominent points of Scripture doc- 
trine, which has proved very important as a matter of 
history ; but they appeal to no other standard except the 
Bible, in the reception, discipline and exclusion of members. 

Dr. Way land remarks: "The question is frequently 

asked, What is the creed, and what are the acknowledged 

standards of the Baptist churches in this 

Prin. and Prac country? To this the general answer has 
of Bapts., p. 13. f & 

ever been, 'Our rule 01 faith and prac- 
tice is the New Testament/ We have no other authority 
to which we all profess submission." 



Identified in (Baptist Teaching. 185 

Also, Joseph Belcher, speaking of the Baptists, says: 
" It is important, however, that it should be well under- 
stood that nowhere do the churches of this 
denomination require subscription to this g p j? 4 q 
or any other human creed as a term of 
fellowship. They adhere rigidly to the New Testament 
as the sole standard of Christianity." In the first article 
of the abstract of principles contained in the Encyclope- 
dia of Religious Knowledge, it is affirmed, that the Bible 
is " The supreme standard by which all 
human conduct, creeds and opinions should e ^9^ )US ncya, 
be tried." In fact, it is but the united 
voice of all Baptists throughout the world, that, " We 
profess to take for our guide, in all matters 
of religious belief and practice, the Neio I™' a ! 1 r ™ % 

m i 7 tit m t °f Bypt*-} P- § 5. 

Testament, the whole New Testament, and 
nothing but the New Testament" And it will be seen, here- 
after, that this has been a prominent feature of Baptist 
doctrine through all the dark ages of Popery, when no 
other denomination even professed to be governed by the 
Scriptures alone. But have not the Baptists a Confession 
of Faith, which they regard as their standard of doctrine? 

No ; none except the Bible. But they have, at differ- 
ent times, in different countries, given expression to their 
views of Bible doctrine. And these expressions of Bap- 
tist sentiments have usually been called forth in order to 
correct the false and slanderous charges which have been 
heaped upon the persecuted Baptists. 

In these latter days these " confessions of faith " have 
become the more necessary from the fact that almost a 
thousand antagonistic parties profess to believe the Bible. 
The Savior prayed that all his disciples might be one, in 



186 The (Bible as the (Rule of Conduct: 

order to the conversion of the world. The design of this 
oneness was not simply to assemble together a mass of 
persons holding all sorts of doctrines. The apostle ex- 
horted the brethren as follows : " I beseech 
you, brethren, by the name of our Lord 
Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that 
there be no divisions among you : but that ye be perfectly 
joined together in the same mind, ahd in the same judg- 
ment." And in order to this oneness, in mind and judg- 
ment, it becomes absolutely necessary for those who desire 
to dwell together in unity to express themselves in regard 
to the leading points in Bible doctrine. 

If they design to be united in church capacity, it is 
accessary for persons to express themselves, at least on all 
those points which are essential to church organization; 
for if persons should assemble together simply on the 
profession that they believe the Bible, then we might 
have Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Lu- 
therans, and Methodists, with all other Pedobaptists ; 
and also we would have Unitarians, Universalists, Qua- 
kers, Campbellites, and Mormons, all united with Bap- 
tists on the vague profession of believing the Bible. 
We must not only receive the Bible as our standard 
theoretically, but we must make it our rule of action. 
Therefore, in the midst of such a multitude of opposing 
parties and doctrines, it becomes absolutely necessary for 
those who would dwell together to express their views of 
Bible doctrine ; and as a summary of faith must be ex- 
pressed in order to Christian union, it can certainly be 
no more harm to write it than to express it orally. This 
summary of doctrine, whether written or unwritten, is 
the creed of the individual who holds it ; it is a Bible 



Identified in (Baptist Teaching. 187 

creed only so far as it comports with Inspiration. On this 
subject, Mr. Jeter wTites as follows : " Every intelligent 

Christian has a creed, written or unwrit- 

, r™ , ' n m m ,i j Campbellism Ex- 

ten. Ihere are certain tacts, truths, and -f nA 

. posed, p. 34. 
principles which he believes and main- 
tains, and the belief of which he deems essential to the 
essence of true holiness. He may or may not write these 
articles of his belief; but they are equally his creed, and 
equally efficacious in controlling his conduct, whether 
they are written or unwritten. The writing of them is 
merely placing in a visible form what previously existed 
in his mind, and doing so contravenes no law of Christ 
and violates no moral obligation. But what is here 
affirmed of an individual, may with equal clearness and 
propriety be affirmed of a church of Christ." 

But it must be remembered that such " creeds," or ex- 
pressions of faith, are not appealed to in the reception, 
trial, and exclusion of members among Baptists. In an- 
swer to the charge made by Alexander Campbell, that 
the Baptists had a Confession of Faith as a bond of union, 
Elder J. L. Waller says : "Let us, then, calmly examine 
creeds, as used by the Baptists, and see 

what there is in the matter so terrible to ^ ^ lS -. ^, teW) 

l©4o ; p. 166. 
Cliristians. And we here state, and we 

defy all contradiction, that the only bond of union and 
communion ever recognized by the Baptist denomination, 
is the Bible. This every man acquainted with their his- 
tory knows to be the truth. They never published any 
creed, long or short, at any time, as a bond of union and 
communion. These, we say, are notorious facts, and we 
assert them in the face of the thousand and one statements 
to the contrary, made, of late years, in print and in the 



188 The (Bible as the (Rule of Conduct : 

pulpit. That the Baptists have creeds, is admitted ; but that 
these creeds are used as bonds of union, is denied." In ex- 
planation of the use of creeds among Baptists, Mr. Waller 
continues: "The first Confession of Faith 

"' ever published by the Baptists in England, 

was in 1643. They prefaced it thus: 'A Confession of 
Faith of seven congregations or churches of Christ, in Lon- 
don, which are commonly, but unjustly, called Anabaptists ; 
published for the vindication of the truth and information 
of the ignorant; likewise for the talcing off those aspersions 
which are frequently, both in pulpit and print, unjustly 
cast upon them.' You will remark that it was published 
for the vindication of the truth, and to remove unjust im- 
putations, under which the Baptists were suffering, and 
not as terms of union and communion." And it will be 
found that Baptists have often published an expression of 
faith for the information of the ignorant, for the vindica- 
tion of the truth, and to stand as a matter of history to 
point out to future generations the principles for which 
they suffered. This Confession of Faith, referred to by 
Elder Waller, may be found in the appendix to the first 
volume of Crosby's History of English Baptists, page 7. 

Again, in the year 1689, the delegates of more than 
one hundred churches met in London and republished the 
former Confession of Faith, "for the satisfaction of all 
other Christians that differ from us in the point of bap- 
tism." Various other expressions of faith and practice 
have been published by the Baptists, at different times, 
down to that published by the Philadelphia Association in 
1742. And this association repeated the language of the 
English Baptists as a reason for its publication. These 
American Baptists, like their English brethren, felt them- 



i 



Identified in (Baptist Teaching. 189 

selves "To be under necessity of publishing a Confession 

of Faith, for the information and satisfac- 

,. r . i ji j' j j. ,1 1.1 Western Bapt. Re- 

tion of those that did not thoroughly un- . 1 \ 

to J view, p. 134. 

derstand what our principles were, or had 
entertained prejudices against our profession, by reason of 
the strange representation of them by some men of note, 
who had taken very wrong measures, and accordingly led 
others into misapprehensions of us and them." It is a 
well-known fact, that in all these Baptist confessions of 
faith the Bible is recognized as the rule of faith and prac- 
tice. Once more, Mr. Waller says : " Our churches gen- 
erally have creeds, or declarations of their 

faith upon their church-books : and these . ^ m ., ijf " 
r ' mew, p. 135. 

creeds they make themselves, but they do 
not feel bound to make them in obedience to the will of 
any synod, council or assembly upon earth. Over these 
creeds they maintain absolute supremacy, and can alter 
or abolish them at pleasure. They are never used as 
terms of union and communion ; for no person is required 
to subscribe to them on being received into membership." 
Mr. "Waller says, in conclusion : " One principle which has 
always been esteemed fundamental by us — 

THE INDEPENDENCE AND SOVEREIGNTY 5* €rU Jf." ^' 

mew, p. 135. 

OF each church — ought to have con- 
vinced any reflecting man, that a denominational creed, as 
a bond of union and communion, was wholly out of the 
question, and the charge that we had such, was a foul slan- 
der." It is now clear that the Baptists possess the peculi- 
arity of the primitive churches in taking the Bible as their 
rule of faith and practice. 



190 Order of the Commandments : 



CHAPTER X. 

BAPTIST PECULIAEITY THIRD— OEDEE OF THE COM- 
MANDMENTS. 

1. Peculiarity Third tested by the Bible. 

2. Peculiarity Third identified in present Baptist 

teaching. 

Section I. — Baptist peculiarity third tested by 

THE BIBLE. 

Baptists hold the Bible order of the commandments ; 
they teach Repentance, Faith, Baptism, and the Lord's 
Supper. This is emphatically a Baptist peculiarity ; this 
order is not even professed by any other denomination on 
earth. This is a very important feature or point of doc- 
trine, which will aid us in identifying the true Church of 
Christ. Jesus Christ not only established laws for the 
government of his disciples, but he established the precise 
order in which those laws must be obeyed. To violate 
the order of a law, is to disregard the law itself, and treat 
the law-giver with contempt. For the officers of a civil 
government to pretend to enforce the laws by inverting 
the order of their application, would involve them in the 
censure of the government and the forfeiture of their office. 
That one who changes the order of the laws of Christ, ar- 
rays himself as a rebel against his government. Paul 
said to the Corinthians : H Now I praise you, brethren, 
that you remember me in all things, and 
keep the ordinances as I delivered them to 
you." These brethren were not at liberty to change the 



Tested by the (Bible. 191 

ordinances ; they were to keep them as they were deliv- 
ered. Of these four important commands, two — repent- 
ance and faith — are enjoined upon sinners in order to 
their pardon ; and the other two — baptism and the Lord's 
Supper — are enjoined upon the children of God in order 
to their Christian duty and advancement in divine life. 
As regards the order of repentance and faith, the Bible is 
clear. Jesus said to those who believed in the existence 
of God : " Repent ye, and believe the Gos- 
pel." It is freely admitted that before one 
can repent, he "must believe that God is, and that he is 
a rewarder of them that diligently seek 
him." But devils and wicked men may be- 
lieve this much, and even tremble, without possessing 
faith with the heart. It is the faith that works by love, 
purifies the heart, implies trust in Christ, and is with the 
heart, which follows repentance, and is necessary to the 
pardon of sins. This is that faith referred to by the apos- 
tle, when he said : " One Lord, one faith, one 
baptism." There are false gods, but only 
one true God; there are false baptisms, but only one true 
baptism approved by Jesus Christ ; there is a dead faith, 
without works, which wicked men and devils may possess 
without repentance, but there is only one faith with the 
heart in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is the heart-faith 
which follows repentance, and through which salvation, 
the gift of God, is bestowed. "When Jesus Christ preached 
to the Jews, he said : Repent ye, and believe the Gospel. 
Did he make a mistake as to the order ? Our modern Re- 
formers, who are wise about that which is written, reprove 
the Savior by changing his order ; they say : Believe and 
repent ! When Jesus reproved the chief priests and the 



192 Order of the Commandments : 

elders for rejecting the Gospel as preached by John, he 

said unto them : " Verily I say unto you, that the publi- 

nr ,, o„ „-, ™ cans an( l ^e harlots 2:0 unto the kingdom 
Matt 21: 31, 32. & to 

01 God before you. 1* or J ohn came unto 

you in the way of righteousness, and ye believed him not ; 
but the publicans and the harlots believed him : and ye, 
when ye had seen it, repented not afterward, that ye might 
believe him." Mark the fact, that Jesus made repentance 
in order to faith. Paul, acting under the immediate com- 
mission and authority of Jesus Christ, laid down the or- 
der in which he performed his mission, as follows : " Testi- 

^ ~. fying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks, 
Acts 20: 21. 

repentance toward God, and faith toward our 

Lord Jesus Christ." Paul certainly understood the order 
of these commandments ; he preached the same order to 
Jews and Gentiles — repentance toward God, and faith to- 
ward our Lord Jesus Christ. And it should be remem- 
bered, that in every passage in the entire Bible where re- 
pentance and faith are mentioned together, repentance is 
always first in point of order ; and he who dares to change 
this order, incurs the anathema of Jesus Christ for preach- 
ing another Gospel. For the further discussion of this 
subject, the reader is referred to my book on Campbellism. 
This part of the Baptist order is fully sustained by the 
Scriptures. 

We now proceed to examine the relative order of bap- 
tism — the third command in this chain of obedience. I be- 
lieve that it is generally admitted that the commission 
given by Jesus Christ before his ascension, contains all 
the authority for the administration of baptism. The ex- 
ecution of the commission is committed to the churches of 
Christ as his representatives on earth. The great com- 



ested by the (Bible. 193 



mission stands thus : u All power is given unto me in 

heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, mM . _ 

, „ . , . . , . ' Matt, 28: 18,20. 

and ten en all nations, baptizing them m 

the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 

Ghost : teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I 

have commanded you : and, lo, I am with you alway, 

even unto the end of the world." " And he said unto 

them, Go ye into ail the world, and preach „ , _ ^ _ 
. ' ' * i Mark 16: 15, 16. 

the (jrospel to every creature, lie that 

believeth and is baptized shall be saved ; but he that be- 
lieveth not shall be damned." 

* By the examination of this commission, as given by 
Matthew and Mark, the items stand thus : " First — 
Teaching or preaching. Second — Belief or faith on the 
part of the taught. Third — The baptism of the believer 
in Christ. Fourth — The teaching or instructing the dis- 
ciples in all the commandments of Christ. And, lastly, 
the promise of the Savior is, to be with those who thus ex- 
ecute his commission to the end of the world. Those who 
change the order of faith before baptism, are not acting 
under the commission of Jesus Christ ; neither have they 
the promise of the approval of the Master in this depart- 
ure from his authority. Those who invert the order of 
baptism, place themselves upon a level with those who 
change the order of repentance and faith. And in the 
execution of the great commission by the apostles and 
early Christians, they always required the profession of 
faith before baptism. On the day of Pentecost none were 
baptized except those who had repented and 
" gladly received " the word of God. No un- 
believer has gladly received the word of God. The hearts 
of the Pentecostians were purified, "by faith" Acts 15: 9. 



194 Order of the Commandments. 

before baptism. And it is said of the Samaritans, that : 

"When ^ e y believed Philip preaching the 

Acts 8 : 12. . . . , . .. t* s-i i i 

things concerning the kingdom ot Grod, and 

the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men 
and women." Mark the fact, that the people of Samaria 
"believed" before they were baptized. When the eunuch 
demanded baptism, then " Philip said, if thou 
believest with all thy heart, thou mayest." 
Once more : it is recorded, concerning the jailer, that he 
" Rejoiced, believing in God, with all his 
house." And in the case of all the other 
household baptisms, there are circumstances mentioned 
which go to prove that none were baptized except adults. 
There can no instance be found in the Scriptures devi- 
ating from the commission which requires faith in order 
to baptism. We now advance one step further in the 
examination of the Baptist order of teaching — repent- 
ance, faith, baptism, and the Lord's Supper — and ask the 
question, Does the Bible sustain the position that baptism 
should precede the Lord's Supper? We first introduce 
the example of Jesus Christ, who was baptized before he 
instituted or partook of the supper with his disciples. 
Also, the apostles had been baptized before the institution 
of the supper. 

And the commission itself fixes baptism as the first 
duty after believing with the heart; therefore, under the 
commission no one can commune before baptism. The 
communion, is one of those things which was to be ob- 
served after baptism. The Savior established the com- 

n M munion in his kingdom : for he said, "And 
Lake 22: 29, 30. x .-.- x 6 \ . n 

1 appoint unto you a kingdom, as my 

Father hath appointed unto me ; that ye may eat and drink 



(Baptist Order of the Commands. 195 

at my table in my kingdom ; " and as baptism is essential 
to membership in the visible kingdom, therefore baptism 
must, of necessity, precede the Lord's Supper, which is in 
the Lord's kingdom. In fact, there is no instance on 
Divine record where any unbaptized person ever ap- 
proached the Lord's table. It was after the Pentecostean 
converts had been baptized and added to the church, that 
they " Continued steadfastly in the apostles' 
doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of 
bread, and in prayers." This breaking of bread, no 
** doubt, had reference to the Lord's Supper ; therefore, none 
except the baptized in church fellowship have the right 
to the Lord's table. The invitation of the unbaptized to 
the Lord's Supper is a modern custom, gotten up for the 
sake of popularity. 

The Communion question will be discussed in another 
chapter. 

We have now seen that the third peculiarity is fully 
sustained by Inspiration. The Bible teaches Repentance, 
Faith, Baptism, and the Lord's Supper, as the divine or- 
der of these requirements. 



Section II. — Peculiaeity thied — the bible oe- 

DEE OF EEPENTANCE, FAITH, BAPTISM, AND THE 

LOED'S SUPPEE IDENTIFIED WITH THE PEES- 

ENT BAPTIST TEACHING. 

But little need be said in locating this as a Baptist 
peculiarity, from the fact that no other denomination claims 
this order. Be it remembered that the Baptists are the 
only people who advocate the Bible order of the com- 
mandments. It is admitted that some Baptists recently, 



196 Order of the Commandments. 

especially in England, have adopted the open communion 
custom of receiving the unbaptized to the communion; 
but they do not plead either Scripture precept or example 
for such a practice. In order to identify peculiarity third 
with the present Baptist practice, it is only necessary to 
appeal to the united testimony of the great mass of Bap- 
tists as set forth in their preaching and writings. I will, 
however, introduce a few authorities on this point. 

In a Confession of Faith, presented by the English Bap- 
tists to Charles II., in article eleventh we have the follow- 
Oroshy'sHis.K in g = "That the right and only way of 
Bapt y vol II, gathering churches (according to Christ's 
Ap., p. 81. appointment, Matt, xxviii: 19, 20,) is first 

to teach or preach the Gospel (Mark xvi : 16) to the sons 
and daughters of men ; and then to baptize (that is, in 
English, to dip) in the name of the Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit, or in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, 
such only of them as profess repentance toward God, and 
faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ" And in article thir- 
teenth of the same Confession, these persecuted Baptists 
say : " That it is the duty of such, who are constituted as 
aforesaid, to continue steadfastly in Christ's and the apos- 
tles' doctrine, and assembling together in fellowship, in 
breaking of bread and prayers. Acts ii : 42." The above 
Confession was signed by the London Baptists, and ap- 
proved by twenty thousand members. They firmly main- 
tained the Bible order of repentance, faith, baptism, and 
the breaking of bread, or the Supper, in fellowship after 
baptism. We are informed, by Mr. Orchard, that in the 
times of King James I. the English Baptists " Held that 
Orch His Bapt repentance and faith must precede bap- 
vol. II, p. 250. tism ; that the baptism of the Church of 



(Baptist Order of the Commands. 197 

England and the Puritans was invalid, and that the true 
baptism was among them." These English Baptists pre- 
served the Bible order of these leading commands ; but 
the American Baptists are more uniform in the entire 
preservation of this order than their English brethren; 
for some of the English ventured to violate the order as 
respects the communion. 

Mr. Cramp, in his history of the Baptists, makes the 

following statement of Baptist doctrine : 

u tut j j. i • 4. • Cramp's Bapt. 

"We deny sacramental power, maintain- „. * * 

ing that the soul is renewed and sancti- 
fied, not by any outward act performed upon us or by us, 
but by the truth of the Gospel and the grace of the Holy 
Spirit. We gather from the teachings of the apostles, 
that a man should be a Christian before he avows himself 
to be one ; and, in full accordance, as we believe, with the 
instructions of the New Testament, we admit none to our 
fellowship without a profession of repentance toivard God 
and faith in our Lord Jesus Chirst. Their baptism is, at 
the same time, a declaration of their sole reliance on the 
Savior, and a symbol of their union with him in his death 
and his resurrection — a spiritual, vital union." Mr. Cramp 
here states the order of Baptist teaching. Baptists, with 
great uniformity, teach repentance and faith as the relative 
order of these commands. And no one has ever denied 
that Baptists teach faith as a prerequisite to baptism ; and 
the general complaint of close communion against Baptists 
settles the point that they hold baptism as necessary to 
the lawful approach to the Lord's table. We have found 
that the Baptists preserve the Bible order of the com- 
mandments; they teach repentance toward God and faith 
toward the Lord Jesus Christ; the burial, in baptism, of 



198 Order of the Commandments. 

believers, and the breaking of bread, in the Supper, by 
those in church fellowship. 

Once more : In the Baptist Confession of Faith, pub- 
lished, from time to time, in England, and adopted by the 
Philadelphia Association in 1742, and republished lately 
in the Religious Denominations, by Joseph Belcher, we 

have the following : " Those who actually 
e . enom., p. p ro f ess repentance toward God, faith in, 

and obedience to, our Lord Jesus, are the 
only proper subjects of this ordinance" — baptism. The 
Baptist order is only the Bible order of the commands. 



(Baptist Succession. 199 



CHAPTER XI. 

BAPTIST PECULIAEITY FOUKTH — BUKIAL IN BAP- 
TISM OF THE DEAD TO SIN 

1. Baptist Peculiarity Fourth tested by the Bible. 

2. Peculiarity Fourth identified in Present Baptist 

Teaching. 

Section I. — Baptist peculiarity fourth tested 
by the bible. 

Baptists immerse, or bury with Christ in baptism, 
only those who profess to be dead to, or freed from, sin. 
Like the others, this peculiarity belongs alone to Baptists. 
All other denominations either fail to bury in baptism, 
or baptize those whom they admit to be unpardoned sin- 
ners. . This will be seen when we come to examine the 
cjaims of others. I do not purpose to enter upon the dis- 
cussion of what is usually called the " mode " of baptism, 
in this work. It will not, however, be amiss at this 
point to introduce a few Scripture proofs to sustain the 
position that baptism is immersion, or a burial. 

The meaning of the Greek word baptizo, which was used 
by the Savior to designate his command, ought forever to 
settle the action of baptism in every unbiased mind. It is 
known that its ordinary and primary meaning is to im- 
merse, or its equivalent; and that no standard Greek 
lexicon gives either " sprinkle " or " pour " as a meaning 
of the word baptizo at all. It is absolutely impossible for 
the ordinance of baptism to be three different and opposite 



200 (Burial in (Baptism : 

actions. If sprinkling is the fulfillment of the command 
to be baptized^ then pouring and immersion are not; if 
pouring is the fulfillment of the command, then sprinkling 
and immersion are not; but if immersion is the fulfill- 
ment of the command to be baptized, then sprinkling and 
pouring are not. 

First: My first proof is based upon the example of the 
baptism of Jesus Christ. The notion that the Savior was 
baptized to initiate him into his priestly office, is unknown 
to the Scriptures ; and was only invented to escape the 
force of the example of the Son of God in favor of im- 
mersion. The Savior received only one " mode " of bap- 
tism ; therefore, his example can not be plead in favor of 
three "modes." The apostle said that : "In 
all things it behooved him to be made like 
unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faith- 
ful High Priest in things pertaining to God, to make 
reconciliation for the sins of the people." He required his 
disciples, his brethren, to be baptized; he, therefore, left 
his example to stimulate others in the discharge of duty. 
He required all, in becoming members of the church, 
to be baptized ; and he did not, therefore, violate his own 
law in becoming Head over all things to the church. 
Several facts should be observed in connection with the 
baptism of Jesus : first, he came to John the Baptist, the 
only person in the world then authorized to administer 
baptism — he did not receive " alien " baptism ; second, in 
order to be baptized, he went down into the water of the 
river Jordan ; third, after his baptism, he came up out of 
the water; fourth, while in the water, he was buried in 
baptism ; for Paul says : " Therefore, we are 
[were, aorist tense] buried with him by bap - 



Tested by the (Bible. 201 

tisin into death : that like as Christ was raised up from the 
dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life." In order to avoid the force 
of this passage, some have assumed the absurd position 
that burial in baptism refers to conversion. This would 
involve the gross absurdity of the conversion of Jesus 
Christ, thereby making him a sinner like other men. 
Other modern critics contend that the burial in baptism 
here mentioned, has reference to Holy Spirit baptism ; and 
they, at the same time, admit that water baptism should 
be of the same mode as Holy Spirit baptism ; therefore, 
according to their own admission, water baptism must be 
a burial or immersion, in order to be of the same mode as 
Holy Spirit baptism, which they admit to be a burial or 
immersion. Then, it is a point made out, that Jesus 
Christ, whom we are commanded to follow, was immersed, 
or buried in baptism ; and as he only received and com- 
manded " one baptism," therefore, those who have not 
been immersed, have neither received Christian baptism 
nor followed the example of Jesus in his ordinances. In 
regard to the baptism of Jesus, Dr. Macknight, a learned 

Presbyterian, says that Jesus " Submitted 
.!-,,.!■!,. -i . j i j.1 Baptist Manual, 

to be baptized, that is, buried under tne ' 

water by John, and to be raised out of it 

again, as an emblem of his future death and resurrection." 

Bishop Taylor, the learned Episcopalian, says : " The 

custom of the ancient churches was not _ 

. , ,. , . . . Bapt. Man., p. 18. 

sprinkling, but immersion, m pursuance 

of the sense of the word in the commandment, and the 

example of our blessed Savior." John Calvin, the founder 

of Presbyterianism, says that : " Baptism „ 

was administered, by John and Christ, by 



202 (Burial in (Baptism: 

plunging the whole body under the water." We might 
multiply quotations to show that the most learned Pedo- 
baptist scholars concede the point, that the baptism per- 
formed by John the Baptist and Jesus Christ was performed 
by immersion. 

Second: The places where baptism was performed indi- 
cate that it must have required more water than is used 
for sprinkling. Mark says : "And there went out unto 

r , him all of the land of Judea, and they of 

Marie 1:5. 

Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in 

the River of Jordan, confessing their sins." Also : "And 
John also was baptizing in Enon, near to 
Salem, because there was much water there ; 
and they came, and were baptized." Thus we see, that 
in the time of Christ, baptism was performed in the river 
of Jordan, or where there was " much water " ; and the 
people " came," were not brought, in order to be baptized. 
Third: Immersion is implied in the circumstances at- 
tending the baptism of the eunuch ; for it is said that, 
" They went down into the water, both Philip and the 

eunuch ; and he baptized him. And when 
Acts 8 :SS, 39. ■ ' r « , , .. 

they were come up out of the water, the 

Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch 
saw him no more : and he went on his way rejoicing." 
It will be observed, that both the administrator and can- 
didate went down into the water, and after the baptism 
they came up out of the water, which would have been 
wholly unnecessary in the supposition that sprinkling was 
performed. 

Fourth : The design of baptism absolutely requires that 
it must be performed by a burial, or an immersion. Bap- 
tism is sometimes spoken of as being for the remission, or 



Tested by the (Bible. 203 

tvashing away of sins. Ananias said to Saul : " And now, 
why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and i 
wash away thy sins, calling on the name of 
the Lord." Some have fallen into the egregious error, that 
baptism is literally for the remission or washing away of 
sins. It is evident, however, that we only wash away 
sins in baptism in the same sense that w T e eat the flesh and 
drink the blood of Christ in the Supper. Jesus said of 
the bread, "This is my body;" and of the wine, "This 
is my blood." And the Catholic, in his superstition, takes 
the language of Jesus literally, and, therefore, worships 
the bread and wine as the actual body and blood of Jesus; 
and in like manner, some Protestants have taken those 
passages literally which speak of baptism as being for the 
remission of sins ; and they, therefore, depend on baptism 
as the condition of the actual pardon of sins. They have 
fallen into the same error, on this point, into which the 
Catholics have fallen on the communion question. The 
truth is, that we only eat the flesh and drink the blood of 
Jesus emblematically in the Supper, and likewise sins are 
washed away emblematically in baptism. But as we rep- 
resent the washing away of sins in baptism, how much of 
the subject should be washed? Ashe is, in a state of na- 
ture, entirely sinful, in order to represent the washing 
away of sins, the subject should have an entire washing, 
a burial with Christ in baptism. Nothing less than 
an immersion will properly represent the washing away 
of sins. 

Fifth : Once more : the prominent design of baptism is 
to represent the burial and resurrection of the dead. Paul 
introduced in his argument in favor of the resurrection, 
baptism as a witness of the resurrection of the dead. He 



204 (B urial in (Baptism : 

said: "Else what shall they do, which are 
baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at 
all. Why are they then baptized for the dead?" 

Paul introduced baptism here as a witness to prove the 
resurrection of the dead; but as nothing except immersion 
represents the resurrection, therefore, nothing except im- 
mersion is the baptism for which Paul contended. The 
celebrated commentator, Dr. Clark, says on this passage : 
" But as they received baptism as an em- 
1 5 • 29 U ? blem of death in voluntarily going under 

the water, so they receive it as an emblem 
of the resurrection unto eternal life in coming up out of the 
water. Thus they are baptized for the dead in perfect 
faith of the resurrection." It is evident that, as the 
Lord's Supper, as a monument, commemorates the suf- 
ferings and death of Jesus Christ, so baptism, as a monu- 
ment, commemorates, or shows forth, his burial and resur- 
rection. When an individual has been spiritually cruci- 
fied with Christ, or killed to the love of sin, and is dead 
to, or freed from sin, he should be buried with Christ in 
baptism, and arise to walk in newness of life. This is 
taught in Paul's letter to the Romans, where he asks : 
" How shall we that are dead to sin, live any 
longer therein ? Know ye not, that so many 
of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized 
into his death ? Therefere we are buried with him by 
baptism into death : that like as Christ was raised up from 
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should 
walk in newness of life. For, if we have been planted 
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in 
the likeness of his resurrection : Knowing this, that our 
old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might 



Tested by the (Bible. 205 

be destroyed, that henceforth we shall not serve sin. For 
he that is dead is freed from sin." From the above it is 
clearly taught, that when the " old man is crucified with 
him/' and he becomes " dead to sin," that he that is dead 
is freed from sin, or pardoned ; and as death to sin must 
come before baptism, therefore freedom from sin likewise 
takes place before baptism. It has ever been a funda- 
mental doctrine with Baptists, to baptize none except they 
have first professed faith in Christ, and to have received 
the pardon of sins. Baptists regard baptismal salvation 
as one of the main pillars of popery. The idea of baptiz- 
ing a child of the devil in order to make him a child of 
God, is, to a Baptist, preposterous. 

That persons should be children of God, or freed from 
sin, before baptism, is proved from all those Scriptures 
which ascribe salvation and eternal life to faith in Christ. 

One quotation is sufficient : " He that be- _ _ 

,. n , . , John 3: 18. 

lievetn on him is not condemned ; but he tnat 

believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not 

believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." 

And : " Verily, verily, I say unto you, he 

that heareth my word, and believeth on him 

that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into 

condemnation ; but is passed from death unto life." 

Several facts are taught in these Scriptures : first, the 
unbeliever is condemned, not for want of baptism, but be- 
cause he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten 
Son of God ; second, the believer is not condemned, and 
he must be a believer before baptism, therefore his con- 
demnation is removed before baptism; thirdly, the be- 
liever hath, in the present time, everlasting life, and as he 
is in possession of everlasting life before baptism, there- 



206 (Burial in (Baptism. 

fore he is freed from sin, and is a child of God, before 
baptism ; fourth, the believer in Christ has already passed 
from death unto life, and shall not come into condemna- 
tion ; therefore he is freed from sin before baptism, be- 
cause he has passed from death unto life before baptism. 
And if the pardon of sins does not really occur when one 
becomes a true believer in Christ, then a large part of 
the New Testament can not be true. We find that the 
Baptist peculiarity fourth is fully sustained in the Word 
of God. The Bible teaches the burial with Christ in 
baptism only of those who profess to be dead to, or freed 
from, sin. 



Section II. — Peculiarity fourth identified in 

PRESENT BAPTIST TEACHING. 

It is really unnecessary to introduce witnesses to prove 
that Baptists universally teach immersion as the only 
Scriptural action of baptism. The editor of the Religious 
Encyclopedia remarks on this subject: "That in the opin- 
ion of Baptists, baptism is the immersion 
eigious ncyc, ^ wa ( er J a suitable candidate, in the 
name of the Father, of the Son, and of the 
Holy Ghost. The only suitable candidate is a person who 
has been born of the Spirit, and who is united to Christ by 
faith." Again, the same author says : " In regard to this 
ordinance of Christ, 'they have ever held/ 
ezgwus ncyc, ga ^ g ]yj r Benedict^ their historian, 'that 
a personal profession of faith, and an im- 
mersion in w T ater, are essential to baptism/ " And in the 
same work, article twelfth of the Baptist Declaration of 
Faith reads as follows: "Of Baptism and the Lord's 



(Baptists oppose (Baptismal Salvation. 207 

Supper. — That Christian baptism is the 

_£»-!-,. . . ,i Reliqious Encyc, 

immersion 01 a believer in water, m the * * ' 

. P- 191. 

name of the Father, Son, and Spirit; to 

show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem, our faith in 
a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, with its purifying 
power; that it is prerequisite to the privileges of a church 
relation ; and to the Lord's Supper, in w^hich the members 
of the church, by the use of bread and wine, are to com- 
memorate together the dying love of Christ ; preceded al- 
ways by solemn self-examination." In fact, no one has 
ever accused the Baptists of holding anything less than an 
immersion or burial in water for baptism. But some per- 
sons, through ignorance or prejudice, have accused the Bap- 
tists with teaching baptismal salvation ; therefore, a few 
other proofs on this point will be given. Mr. Robinson, 
the Baptist historian, says: " Baptism is 
a relative institution, and all Christians ' "' ' * 

consider it so. Some think it is an institution connected 
with a profession of Christianity, and, of course, it is re- 
lated only to temporal church fellowship. This is the 
opinion of Baptists. Others suppose it is connected with 
sanctification, and the pardon of sin, and related to the 
future state, and consequently that it is necessary to sal- 
vation." Thus we have the Baptist view, that while bap- 
tism is a solemn duty enjoined upon every child of God as 
a prerequisite to church fellowship and communion, they 
do not regard it as essential to salvation. 

Joseph Belcher, speaking of Baptists, remarks that: 
" It is true that they regard baptism as an 

essential ordinance of the Christian Church, * ' M e J lom ' J PP* 

; 21o, 216. 
and that no one can be a member of that 

church unless he be baptized. It is also true that they do 



208 (Burial in (Baptism. 

not regard any other mode of administering this ordinance 
as valid or Scriptural, except immersion. And hence, it 
is also true, that they refuse to admit those to commune 
with them, who, though baptized by sprinkling, have 
never been baptized by immersion. * * * * It is proper, 
further, to remark, that Baptists do not, as is sometimes 
erroneously asserted, regard baptism as possessing in itself 
any irresistible influence in sanctifying those who receive 
it. They regard it as the outward sign of the inward 
change ; and not the means by which repentance and sanc- 
tification are produced." Baptists do not regard baptism 
as the "means" of pardon. In fact, the Baptists are the 
only denomination that performs baptism at all, which is 
not, more or less, chargeable with the doctrine of baptismal 
salvation. Catholics hold that the unbaptized are damned. 
Protestant Pedobaptists hold that baptism is the seal of 
the covenant of grace, and the modern Reformers make 
baptism regeneration itself, and essential to salvation ; but 
Baptists hold, as they have ever done, that none have a 
right to baptism till they are already pardoned and saved. 
So, instead of holding baptismal salvation, the Baptists 
teach, that salvation from sin is essential to baptism. Bap- 
tists stand out in Christendom alone against the Romish 
dogma of baptismal salvation. This is a fundamental 
doctrine with them. Mr. Benedict shows the absurdity 
of baptismal regeneration, on page 286 of the History of 
the Baptists. 



Fifth (Peculiarity tested by the (Bible. 209 



CHAPTER XII. 

BAPTIST PECULIAKITY FIFTH— EQUALITY IN THE 
KINGDOM. 

1. Baptist Peculiarity Fifth tested by the Bible. 

2. Peculiarity Fifth identified in present Baptist 

teaching. 

Section I. — Baptist peculiarity fifth tested by 
the bible. 

Baptists recognize equal rights or privileges in the exe- 
cution of the laws of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

Perfect religious liberty has been one of the landmarks 
of the Baptist denomination in every period of its history. 
We have been regarded with jealousy and suspicion by all 
the despotic rulers of earth, because our principles tend to 
the overthrow of all despotism. This perfect religious 
liberty advocated by Baptists, does not in the least inter- 
fere with any political or social relations which are or- 
dained of God. 

Is the Baptist doctrine of " soul liberty " and religious 
equality in the churches of Christ, sustained by the Bible? 
The prophecy concerning the mission of John, who intro- 
duced the Gospel dispensation, indicates the equality ad- 
vocated by Baptists. Of John's mission, the Lord said : 
" The voice of him that crieth in the wil- 
derness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, 
make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 
Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and 



210 Equality in the Kingdom: 

hill shall be made low : and the crooked shall be made 
straight, and the rough places plain." This prediction 
indicates the grand mission of the kingdom of heaven, in 
leveling, in a religious point of view, the human family. 
The kings and nobles of earth are to be brought down, and 
the poor, lame, halt, and blind, are to be raised to the 
dignity of fellow-citizens with the saints in the kingdom 
of God. 

Since the fall of man, there has ever rankled in his bo- 
som the spirit of pride, which prompts him to seek the 
opportunity to usurp authority over his fellow men. And 
even Christians are not entirely free from this spirit of 
Antichrist. The apostles themselves had strife among 
them as to which should be accounted the greatest. But 
Jesus firmly rebuked the very first buddings of this spirit 
of error, as follows: "But Jesus called them to him, and 
saith unto them, Ye know that they which 
are accounted to rule over the Gentiles, 
exercise lordship over them ; and their great ones exercise 
authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you : 
but whosoever will be great among you, shall be your min- 
ister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be 
servant of all." And just before the Savior's death, he 
repeated the same lesson of instruction to his disciples, as 
follows: "And he said unto them, the 
kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over 
them ; and they that exercise authority upon them are called 
benefactors. But ye shall not be so : but he that is greatest 
among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is 
chief, as he that doth serve." How daring must be that 
pride that, in the face of these instructions, would prompt 
any one to claim the pre-eminence, or usurp authority 



Tested by the (Bible. 211 

over his brethren! It is almost universally admitted, that 
the churches of Jesus Christ are the executives of his king- 
dom, appointed to execute the laws of the King. Now, 
if this position be correct, then all the members of each 
church are authorized to participate in the transaction of 
business, unless some of them are expressly prohibited by 
the Word of God; but no class of church • members are 
prohibited from a participation in the transaction of busi- 
ness ; therefore, all the members are authorized to act in 
the transaction of business. 

But the question may be asked : " Do not the ministers 
or elders possess superior authority to rule over the 
churches, and execute the laws of the kingdom ? " It is 
very important that we should understand the meaning 
of the New Testament ruling by the elders or pastors of 
the churches. This New Testament ruling is not to do 
all the voting, and transact all the business of a church in 
matters of discipline, but to give them meat in due season; 
for Jesus " The Lord said, w 7 ho then is that 
faithful and wise steward whom his Lord 
shall make ruler over his household, to give them their 
portion of meat in due season ?" The Lord has made 
these " rulers " over his house, not to decide cases of dis- 
cipline, but to give them their portion of meat in due season. 

He has appointed them to feed his sheep T , 

, , , V . * i .i n , John 21: 16. 

and tamos. It is iurther evident, trom tne 

language of Peter, that the elders of the churches are to 

rule by advice and example, and not by deciding cases of 

discipline. Peter said : " The elders which n _ ' n 
T , , 1 Peter 5 : 1-3. 

are among you I exhort, who am aiso an 

elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a 

partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: feed the 



212 Equality in the Kingdom-: 

flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight 
thereof, not by constraint, but willingly ; not for filthy 
lucre, but of a ready mind ; neither as being lords over 
God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock. " 

Thus we find that the elders are to rule by example and 
by feeding the flock of Christ. Whatever may be the 
different gifts or offices in the Church of Christ, no mem- 
ber has a right to claim the pre-eminence in the execution 
of the laws of Christ. The very fact that the ministers or 
elders are chosen or ordained by the churches, proves that 
they are inferior in point of authority to the churches 
which have invested them with the ministerial office. The 
apostles themselves only claimed to be servants of the 

churches : for Paul said : " We preach not 
2 \OT 4 * *y 

ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord ; and 
ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." The only way 
to become great in the kingdom of Jesus, is to be a great 
servant. Every minister is equal in point of privilege 
with every other member of the church ; but, as a minis- 
ter in his official capacity, he is subject to, and inferior to 
the church. His individual acts or decisions have no 
more binding force than those of any other member. It 
appears, from the Scriptures, that all the true members of 
the churches in the kingdom of Christ, have equal priv- 
ileges in the following particulars: First: The true mem- 
bers of the kingdom of Christ have been made equally 
free from the bondage of sin. Jesus said : " If the Son, 

t 7 n «/. therefore, shall make you free, ye shall be 
John 8: 36. „ .-,-,„ /•-.''/. . . \ « 

tree indeed." And this spiritual freedom 

applies to all classes, male and female, bond and free. 

Second: They are all equally the children of God; the 

apostle says : " For ye are all the children of God by 






Tested by the (Bible. 213 

faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you 
as have been baptized into Christ, have put 
on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is 
neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female ; 
for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, 
then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the 
promise." Thus we find, that. all true members of the 
church are equally the children of God, and equal heirs 
according to the promise, without any reference whatever 
to sex or position in society. Third : All the true mem- 
bers of the churches of Christ have the laws of God writ- 
ten in their hearts, and therefore know Christ ; for it is 

said : " They shall not teach every man his 

, n " , i • i " i JoLeb. 8 : 11. 

neighbor, and every man his brother, say- 
ing, Know the Lord : for all shall know me, from the 
least to the greatest." 

Some object to servants possessing the right to vote in 
the church, on the ground that they are under the juris- 
diction of others, and have no right to control their own 
actions. This is an unscriptural inference, from the fact 
that no human laws or regulations can interfere with our 
relations and obligations to Jesus Christ. On the same 
principle it might be plead that slaves have no right to be 
baptized or receive the Lord's Supper ! While it is true, 
that Christianity did not change the relations of master 
and slave, for the servant was commanded to abide in the 
service of his master under the strongest obligation of 
strict obedience, yet no earthly master ever had the right 
to control his servants in matters of religion, or interfere 
with his duties in the worship of God. Paul is very de- 
cided upon this point : he savs : " Let 

. c 1 Cor. 7 : 20-24. 

every man abide in the same calling 



214 Equality in the Kingdom : 

wherein he was called. Art thou called being a servant? 
Care not for it : but if thou may est be free, use it rather. 
For he that is called in the Lord, being a servant, is the 
Lord's free man : likewise also he that is called being free, 
is Christ's servant. Ye are bought with a price ; be not 
ye the servants of men. Brethren, let every man, wherein 
he is called, therein abide with God." Thus we learn, 
that the servant who is called of God, "is the Lord's free 
man," and is commanded to be not the servant of men in 
matters of religion ; yet he is required to abide as a serv- 
ant to his master, unless he may be free lawfully. And 
the apostle Paul said to Philemon, of one of these servants, 
Onesimus, who had escaped from his master : " For per- 

„„., «„ +m haps he therefore departed for a season, 
PAifewzon, 15-17. ., \ , , u , . i . n 

that thou shouldst receive him forever; 

not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother be- 
loved, especially to me, but how much more unto thee, 
both in the flesh, and in the Lord ? If thou count me 
therefore a partner, receive him as myself." Mark you, 
Paul sent this servant to his master, " a brother beloved," 
to be received as Paul himself. Are we to infer from this 
that Onesimus should have no right to vote in the church, 
because he was not his own master in worldly affairs? 
And, if so, may we not infer that Paul himself, while a 
"prisoner" in "bonds," had no right to vote in the 
church, because he was not a free man in worldly mat- 
ters ? The truth of the matter is this, we are only under 
obligation to obey the political powers that be, in politi- 
cal affairs ; and whether we are bond or free, male or fe- 
male, when those powers interfere with our duty to God, 
we should say, with the apostles : "We ought 
to obey God rather than men." 



Tested by ihe (Bible. 215 

Another objection is urged to this principle of equality 
in the kingdom of Christ, on the supposition that minors 
or children, subject to their parents, have no right to par- 
ticipate in the transaction of church business. This ob- 
jection, like the former, in the case of servants, is not 
based upon any Scripture prohibiting them from the trans- 
action of business, but upon the fact that they, like slaves, 
are under the control of others, and upon their supposed 
incompetency to perform such duties. If the question of 
eligibility to vote in the transactions of church business is 
to be decided by one's majority, or freedom from his 
parents according to political laws, then in some gov- 
ernments persons would be eligible to transact church 
business much younger than in others; and the Jewish 
Christians were not eligible to vote in church affairs until 
they were thirty years old ; for they were subject to their 
parents, at least, until that age ; and worse still, it would 
make the duty of some members, in the worship of God, 
depend upon the caprice and even injustice of human 
laws. But if this question is to be determined by the 
supposed competency or incompetency of the church mem- 
bers, then quite a number of the male members who are 
of age will be found, at least in the estimation of our wise 
brethren, to be wholly incompetent to vote in the church. 
Then who will decide upon the competency of the members 
to transact church business ? Whenever it is proved that 
any class of members have no right to assist in the trans- 
action of church business, then it will have been proved 
that the same class have no right to church membership 
at all. The objection which is urged against the voting 
in the church of servants, minors, and women on the 
ground that they have no right to rule over masters, pa- 



216 Equality in the Kingdom: 

rents, and husbands, does not touch the question ; for the 
same argument would prove that masters, fathers, and hus- 
bands have no right to vote in church, because they, no 
more than the others, have the right to rule over servants, 
children and wives in matters of religion. Jesus Christ 
is the sole ruler in Zion. In the execution of the laws of 
Christ in the transaction of church business, no church 
has a right to deviate from the laws of Christ ; and if any 
action of a church comports with the New Testamant, 
then it is not the church ruling, but only executing an 
order of the Ruler. But if any church deviates from the 
laws of Christ in its action, that action is null and void, 
and binding on no one. 

But the objection which opposes the participation of 
women in the business transactions of the churches is of 
more serious import, from the fact that all admit that there 
are restrictions regulating the duties of women in the pub- 
lic meetings of the churches. But to what particular acts 
these restrictions apply, is the point in question. Paul 
said to the Corinthians : " Let your women 
keep silence in the churches ; for it is not 
permitted unto them to speak : but they are commanded to 
be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they 
will learn anything, let them ask their husbands at home ; 
for it is a shame for women to speak in the church." " Let 
the woman learn in silence with all sub- 
jection. But I suffer not a woman to 
teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in 
silence." This strong language of the apostle Paul most 
certainly restricts women from the exercise of certain 
duties or privileges belonging to men. But are we to 
infer from this, that women are debarred from the exercise 



Tested by the (Bible. 217 

of all church duties and privileges? I think not; for the 
same apostle, in the same letter to the same church, where 
he forbids women to speak in church, gives the following 
directions relative to the duties of women : " But every 
woman that prayeth or prophesieth with 
her head uncovered, dishonoreth her head : 
for that is even all one as if she were shaven. For if the 
woman be not covered, let her also be shorn : but if it be 
a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her 
be covered. For a man indeed ought not to cover his 
head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God : 
but the woman is the glory of the man. * * * For this 
cause ought the woman to have power on her head, be- 
cause of the angels. * * * Judge in yourselves : is it 
comely that a woman pray unto God uncovered? Doth 
not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long 
hair, it is a shame unto him ? But if a woman have long 
hair, it is a glory to her ; for her hair is given her for a 
covering." In the foregoing, the apostle certainly allows 
women to pray and prophesy in the churches on certain 
conditions ; for it can not be reasonably supposed that the 
apostle was giving instruction to the church relative to 
secret prayer, or private teaching. The woman who prays 
or prophesies in church, must do so with her head covered, 
or vailed ; while the man praying or prophesying in the 
church, should do so with his head uncovered. I suppose 
that the power on her head because of angels, alludes to the 
token of submission (which was her vail and long hair) 
to her husband ; and because of the angels, I understand 
to mean before, or in the presence of, the angels. We also 
learn that " Philip, the evangelist, which was 
one of the seven/' "had four daughters, 



218 Equality in the Kingdom. 

virgins, which did prophesy." Philip, the evangelist, who 
was filled with the Holy Spirit, permitted his four virgin 
daughters to prophesy, or teach publicly ; and Paul allowed 
women to pray and prophesy, with their heads covered, in 
the church ; and yet he requires women not to speak, but 
to keep silence in the churches. Does Paul contradict him- 
self? Verily not ; therefore, we conclude that under some 
circumstances women may. teach and pray in the congre- 
gation, and under others they must not. And I suppose, 
from the connection, that the women are required not to 
speak in church controversies on litigated questions. 
But that she may speak or teach in the church, under 
some circumstances, is evident from the fact that the 
apostle gives directions as to the manner in which it should 
be done. But the question whether women should, or 
should not, teach publicly in the churches, has no bearing 
whatever, that I can see, upon the question of the privi- 
lege of women to aid in the transaction of church busi- 
ness by casting their lots, or voting. Some have pressed 
this objection so far that they affirm that for a woman to 
raise her hand to vote, would amount to speaking, because 
" actions speak louder than words"! But this objection 
would lie with equal force against the duty of women 
confessing their faith in Christ, being baptized, uniting 
with the church, or even going to the house of God at all. 
Again, the question is asked, " Should not religious women 
be willing to trust their husbands and fathers to transact 
the business of the church, or act for them in voting?" 
This would make the husbands and fathers occupy the 
place of god- fathers for their wives and daughters. This 
would be sponsorial religion — worshiping God by proxy. 
Then, why not the husband and father be baptized, and 



May Women' Vote in Church? 219 

receive the Lord's Supper, and perform all other religious 
duties, instead of his wife or daughters ? The worship of 
God requires individual and personal obedience. No one 
can perform a religious act in lieu of another. 

Another objection arises on the score of delicacy — that 
some questions come before churches unsuitable for ladies 
to hear. The same objection is urged against ladies being 
immersed • for it is alleged to be indecent. Questions of 
religious duty are not to be settled by the fictitious deli- 
cacy of modern times. The only question should be, 
" What is truth ? " in matters of religion. And more : it 
is not always absolutely necessary for the congregation to 
hear all the details of evidence in cases of church trial. 
In the case of the incestuous man in the church at Corinth, 
it was not necessary to enter into all the details ; but Paul 
announced the fact of the man's guilt, and the church ex- 
cluded him. Not many worse cases than this are likely 
to occur in the history of church trials. And the very 
same objections are urged sometimes against reading the 
Scriptures, — that the Bible contains some things too deli- 
cate for them to read ! But enough of this ; it is absolutely 
certain that the churches of Christ are constituted the de- 
positories of truth, and are under obligation to act in the 
execution of the laws of Christ; but women are recog- 
nized in the Scriptures as church members ; therefore, wo- 
men are authorized to participate in the execution of the 
laws of Christ, or in the transaction of church business. 

Fourth: All the members are equal as to the terms 
of their reception into church fellowship; they are all 
required to repent, believe in Christ, and be buried with him 
in baptism, in order to church membership. 

Fifth : The members of the true churches of Christ 



220 Equality in the Kingdom. 

are equal in privilege and duty, in the trial and exclu- 
sion of disorderly persons. Jesus himself has laid down 
the law upon this point ; for he says : " Moreover, if thy 

Hn '.,„ brother shall trespass against thee, go and 
Matt 18: 15-17. in , . , . « ,7, & , , , . 

tell him his fault between thee and him 

alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. 
But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or 
two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses 
every word may be established. And if he shall neglect 
to hear them, tell it unto the church : but if he neg- 
lect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a heathen 
man and a publican." Mark : the command is, to tell the 
grievance "unto the church," not to a certain class of 
rulers; and the offender is required to "hear the church," 
not a class of self-appointed judges in the church. The 
church is composed of all its members ; and as there are 
no restrictions for or against any class, therefore we must 
come to the irresistible conclusion that the church means 
the churchy the local assembly of which the offender is a 
member. But if this command ever comports with the 
new T views of church government now being advocated by 
some of the brethren, it will have to be reconstructed, or 
translated so as to read as follows : "And if he shall neg- 
lect to hear them, tell it unto the male members of the 
church over twenty-one years of age : but if he shall neg- 
lect to hear the male members of the church over twenty- 
one years of age, let him be unto thee as a heathen man 
and a publican." 

That it was the duty of the church, not a part only, 

to act in the exclusion of members, is seen in the advice 

of the apostle Paul to the church at Corinth, 

as follows: "In the name of our Lord 



May Women Vote in Church? 221 

Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my 
Spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver 
such a one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, 
that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Je- 
sus. * * * * Purge out therefore the old leaven that ye 
may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened." Mark the fact, 
that it was the church, not a part of it, which was directed 
to purge out the old leaven by delivering the offender to 
Satan — viz: excluding him. Sixth: Church members 
are equal in their privilege and duty in the restoration or 
reception of members. Paul, in his second letter to the 
Corinthians, advised them concerning the excluded mem- 
ber, as follows : " Sufficient to such a man is 
this punishment, which was inflicted of many. 
So that, contrariwise, ye ought rather to forgive him, and 
comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed 
up with overmuch sorrow." It will be observed that his 
punishment or exclusion "was inflicted of many" — the 
church; and it was the church which was directed to 
forgive him." Seventh : The church members were equal 
in the privilege and duty in choosing their officers. Even 
in the election of an apostle to fill the place vacated by 
Judas, they, the disciples, among whom were women, 

" Gave forth their lots : and the lot fell upon 

Acts 1 * 26 
Matthias; and he w T as numbered with the 

eleven apostles." Now, if all the disciples in the congre- 
gation gave forth their lots in a matter so important as 
the election of an apostle, we may safely conclude that 
they had the right to do the same in matters of less mo- 
ment. Also, in the election of deacons the members were 
equal in privilege ; for, when the question of the deacon- 
ship was introduced by the apostles, it is written that, 



222 Equality in the Kingdom. 

"The saying pleased the whole multitude: and they 
chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, 
and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and 
Parmenas, and Nicholas, a proselyte of Antioch." Does 
the whole multitude who choose the deacons, only mean 
the male members over thirty years of age? Eighth: 
The members of the apostolic churches were equal in 
privilege and duty in sending out delegates or messen- 
gers to promote the interests of a cause; the church at 
Jerusalem sent delegates to Antioch to settle the dispute 
about circumcision. It is recorded thus : " Then pleased 

it the apostles and elders, with the whole 
Acts 15 : 22. 

church, to send chosen men of their own 

company to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas : namely, 

Judas surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among 

the brethren." " The whole church " acted with the 

apostles and elders in choosing and sending messengers to 

Antioch. And the same was true in sending out mission- 

aries. Paul says : " Whether any do inquire 

of Titus, he is my partner and fellow-helper 

concerning you ; or our brethren be inquired of, they are 

the messengers of the churches, and the glory of Christ." 

These missionaries were not messengers of a privileged 

class in the churches, but of the churches which sent them 

out. It is now fully settled that the memership in the 

churches of Christ are privileged to participate in all 

church transactions. The doings of a certain class in a 

church can not properly be called church actions. 



(Baptists for Liberty of Conscience. 223 



Section II. — Peculiarity fifth identified with 

PRESENT BAPTIST DOCTRINE. 

The following sentiment, as quoted from the Christian 
Review, by Joseph Belcher, is eminently true : " Religious 
liberty is a Baptist watch-word, a kind of talisman, which 
operates like a charm, and nerves every man for action." 
Whatever shades or difference in opinion may have pre- 
vailed among Baptists on minor questions, they have ever 
been perfectly agreed in this peculiarity. They claim no 
King, Lord, or Ruler, over the conscience, except Jesus 
Christ. Baptist sentiments on this point are clearly ex- 
pressed in the Religious Encyclopedia, as follows : " Hence, 

also, they reject all claims of the civil mag- 

. , i , . •! . - -». v* ,1 i Religious JEncyc. 

istrate to any but civil jurisdiction ; though * 9 ' 

willing and peaceful subjects to civil au- 
thority, where the rights of conscience are not involved. 
Hence, in every age, their strong attachment to liberty, 
especially to religious, liberty; these principles they were 
the first to proclaim, and the first also to exemplify. Their 
principles have subjected them to persecution from age to 
age, and to such principles they have counted it a glory 
to be martyrs. Though their own blood has flown freely, 
they have never shed the blood of others. Indeed, civil 
persecution of any kind, on their principles, is impossible." 
Not only in this country, but throughout the world, Bap- 
tists have borne unflinching testimony to this doctrine of 
equality of privilege in the worship of God. In the ad- 
vertisement to the Tracts on Liberty of Conscience, pub- 
lished by the Hanserd Knolly's Society, * 
it is stated that : " In the prospectus of the J ac ~ ' •* 
Hanserd Knolly's Society, it was stated 



224 Equality in the Kingdom. 

that ' to the Baptists belong the honor of first asserting 
in this land, and of establishing on the immutable basis 
of just argument and Scripture rule, the right of every 
man to worship God as conscience dictates, in submission 
only to divine command/ " And, on the same subject, 
Elder J. U. Graves expresses himself in the standing col- 
umn of his paper, as follows: "All standard historians 
unanimously affirm that the government of the apostolic 
churches was purely democratic (that is, vested in the 
people or membership), and all the churches independent 
republics. All religious societies have legislative powers, 
and clerical or aristocratical governments (that is, in the 
hands of the clergy or a few as a session,) are anti-scrip- 
tural and anti-republican — tyrannies which no Christian 
can lawfully countenance, or republican freeman ought to 
support/' etc. 

Again : Mr. Graves, in the standing column of the Bap- 
tist, says : " That a body of immersed believers is the 
highest ecclesiastical authority in the world, and the only 
tribunal for the trial of cases of discipline ; that the acts 
of a church are of superior binding force over those of an 
association, convention, council, or presbytery; and no 
association or convention can impose a moral obligation 
upon the constituent parts composing them." 

Mr. Orchard, the Baptist historian, says of the Baptists : 
" They are a people very fond of religious 
Tl 277 ' U liberty, and very unwilling to be brought 
under the bondage of the judgment of 
any." This fondness for religious liberty among Baptists 
has generally inclined them to favor a republican form of 
government in the state. Such was the force of Baptist 
influence brought to bear in the formation of the Ameri- 



(Baptists for Liberty of Conscience. 225 

can government, that the Baptist doctrine of " soul liberty " 
was enstamped upon the government in such a manner 
that both religious and political liberty has been secured 
to a continent through Baptist instrumentality. We do 
not mean to teach that none except Baptists were in favor 
of these glorious principles. Many others embraced the 
same sentiments with the Baptists, and stood firm in their 
support against every foe ; but it is a historic fact that Bap- 
tists have ever understood and advocated the doctrine of 
liberty of conscience; and it is certain that they took the 
lead, both in England and America, in the cause of free- 
dom. The German philosopher, Gervinus, speaking of 
the Baptist principles of liberty advocated by Roger Wil- 
liams and others in Rhode Island colony, says : " In ac- 
cordance with these principles, Roger 

Williams insisted, in Massachusetts, upon Religious Denom.. 
„ „ -. p . -, p. 153; quoted by 

allowing entire freedom of conscience, and _g e ^ r 

upon entire separation of the church and 
state. But he was obliged to flee, and in 1636 he formed 
in Rhode Island a small and new society, in which per- 
fect freedom in matters of faith was allowed, and in which 
the majority ruled in all civil affairs. Here, in a little 
State, the fundamental principles of political and ecclesi- 
astical liberty practically prevailed, before they were even 
taught in any of the schools of philosophy in Europe. At 
that time people predicted only a short existence for these 
democratical experiments — universal suffrage, universal 
eligibility to office, the annual change of rulers, perfect 
religious freedom — the Miltonian doctrines of schisms. 
But not only have these ideas and these forms of govern- 
ment maintained themselves here, but precisely from this 
little State have they extended themselves throughout the 



226 Equality in the Kingdom. 

United States. They have conquered the aristocratic 
tendencies in Carolina and New York, the High Church 
in Virginia, the Theocracy in Massachusetts, and the Mon- 
archy in all America. They have given laws to a conti- 
nent, and, formidable through their moral influence, they 
lie at the bottom of all the democratic movements which are 
now shaking the nations of Europe." Though Eoger "Wil- 
liams was not fully a Baptist, he advocated the Baptist doc- 
trine of "soul liberty," for which he was persecuted and 
banished from Massachusetts. As soon as he began to pro- 
claim this doctrine, he was charged with the heresy of the 
Anabaptists. While it is true, as stated by Gervinus, 
that the principles of religious and civil liberty were es- 
tablished in Rhode Island "before they were taught in 
any of the schools of philosophy in Europe," it is also true 
that the Baptists of England had suffered, long prior to 
the time of Williams, for the advocacy of the same prin- 
ciples. It is an error into which some have fallen, who 
suppose that Williams was the first to advocate the doc- 
trine of entire freedom of conscience in matters of religion. 
In this quotation we have the fact brought out that these 
Baptist principles "have given laws to a continent" and 
are " shaking the nations of Europe " by their moral power. 
The love of religious and civil liberty induced the early 
Baptists of this country to side with Washington in the 
struggle for American independence. President Wash- 
ington acknowledged the services of the Baptists in the 
time of the Revolution of Seventy- six; for, in answer to 
the letter of the "Virginia Baptists, congratulating him 
on his honors, he replied that the denom- 
MeligiousDenom., ination < Have been throughout America 

uniformly, and almost unanimously, the 



(Baptists for Liberty of Conscience. 227 

firm friends of civil liberty, and the persevering promoters 
of the glorious Revolution/ " This is the testimony of 
the renowned George Washington, that the Baptists in the 
revolutionary struggle were on the side of liberty. And 
this has been true of Baptists in all ages. Up to the time 
of the achievement of American liberty, as the result of 
the Revolution, State religion was established in the most 
of the colonies except Rhode Island. Baptists were taxed, 
imprisoned, and whipped, because of their advocacy of re- 
ligious liberty, in preaching contrary to the laws regulating 
religion. But, from the very first, they made determined 
efforts to secure full liberty to worship God according to 
the dictates of conscience. They did not merely ask this 
liberty for themselves, but they plead for perfect religious 
liberty to all. In the first Continental Congress, which 
was held in 1774, in Philadelphia, the Baptists sent their 
messengers to memorialize Congress by beseeching them 
to " secure at once the recognition of the inalienable rights 
of conscience" And though nothing could then be accom- 
plished, yet, at the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 
which met in the same year, the Baptists laid in their 
grievances through Isaac Backus ; and they succeeded in 
securing the following resolution, as given by Mr. Curtis : 

"In Provincial Congress, December 9, 1774. 
" On reading the memorial of Rev. Isaac 

Backus, agent of the Baptist churches in P J ogress *f L 

? & r Prm., p. 55. 

this government, 

" Resolved, That the establishment of civil and religious 
liberty to each denomination in the province, is the sincere 
wish of this Congress ; but being, by no means, vested with 
powers of civil government, whereby they can redress the 



228 Equality in the Kingdom. 

grievances of any person whatever, they, therefore, recom- 
mend to the Baptist churches, that when a general assem- 
bly shall be convened in this colony, they lay the real 
grievances of said churches before the same ; when and 
where their petition will most certainly meet with all that 
attention due to the memorial of a denomination of Chris- 
tians so well disposed to the public weal of their country. 
" By order of the Congress. 

" John Hancock, President." 

Accordingly, the Baptists memorialized the next ses- 
sion of the Massachusetts Legislature (1775). In doing 
so, they said : " Our real grievances are, that we, as well 
as our fathers, have, from time to time, been taxed, on 
religious accounts, where we were not represented, and our 
causes have been tried by interested judges. For a civil 
Legislature to impose religious taxes, is, we conceive, a 
power which their constituents never had to give, and, 
therefore, going entirely out of their jurisdiction. We are 
persuaded that an entire freedom from being taxed by 
civil rulers to religious worship, is not a mere favor from 
any man or men in the world, but a right and property 
granted us by God, who commands us to stand fast in it. 
We should wrong our consciences by allowing that power 
to men which we believe belongs only to God." 

Although but little was accomplished at this time, the 
Baptists continued to plead the cause of liberty of con- 
science before the various Legislatures and before Con- 
gress, until religious liberty was fully established through- 
out the United States. Members of other denominations 
have, more or less, advocated religious liberty since it 
became popular in this country ; but when liberfy of con- 



(Baptists for Liberty of Conscience. 229 

science was unpopular, and its adherents were called often 
to suffer for their views, there was found no denomination 
except the Baptists to stand up boldly in favor of this 
boon of Heaven — religious liberty. True, some individ- 
uals among other parties arose above their systems, and 
advocated a partial liberty of conscience, or a toleration. 
But Baptists have understood the principle of religious 
liberty from the first, because this doctrine lies at the 
foundation of the Baptist system. It is an interesting fact 
that the true idea of a free constitution for the American 
Government was derived from the Baptists. We have 
the following account of the impressions made on the mind 
of President Jefferson, by attending a Baptist church: 

" Many of the Baptists are of opinion that 

,i . , i? i i , i j Religions Denom., 

their system of church government had * 

somewhat to do with the foundation of 
the Constitution of these United States ; and tell us that 
the late Rev. Dr. Fishback, of Lexington, Kentucky, a few 
years since, made the following statement, which he re- 
ceived from the late Rev. Andrew Tribble, who died at 
about the age of ninety-three years. Mr. Tribble was 
pastor of a small Baptist church, near Mr. Jefferson's res- 
idence, in the State of Virginia, eight or ten years before 
the American Revolution. Mr. Jefferson attended the 
meetings of the church for several months in succession, 
and, after one of them, asked the worthy pastor to go 
home and dine with him, with which request he complied. 
Mr. Tribble asked Mr. Jefferson how he was pleased 
with their church government. Mr. Jefferson replied, 
that its propriety had struck him with great force, and 
had greatly interested him ; adding, that he considered it 
the only form of pure democracy which then existed in 



230 Equality in the Kingdom. 

the world, and had concluded that it would be the best 
plan of government for the American colonies. This was 
several years before the Declaration of Independence." 
From this it appears that Mr. Jefferson, the framer of the 
Constitution, gathered his idea of " pure democracy" from 
a Baptist church. To my mind, it is evident that the 
doctrine of religious liberty, incorporated in the American 
Constitution and Government, is attributable, under God, 
to Baptist influence. It is no idle dream to announce, that 
Baptist principles have given liberty to a continent. Even 
when Baptists have had the opportunity of pecuniary sup- 
port from the state, they have firmly rejected it as con- 
trary to their fundamental principles of religious liberty. 
This is illustrated by the conduct of the Georgia Baptists, 

reported as follows: "In February, 1785, 
eigious enom.y g a writer in the third volume of the 
p. 165. J 

Christian Revieiv, 'A. law for the estab- 
lishment and support of religion, was passed in Georgia, 
through the influence of the Episcopalians. It embraced 
all denominations, and gave all equal privileges ; but in 
May, the Baptists remonstrated against it — sent two mes- 
sengers to the Legislature, and in the next session it was 
repealed. In both ministers and members, they were much 
more numerous than any other denomination. Their 
preachers might have occupied every neighborhood, and 
lived upon the public treasury ; but, no ; they knew that 
Christ's kingdom is not of this world ; and believed that 
any dependence on the civil power for its support, tends 
to corrupt the purity and pristine loveliness of religion. 
They, therefore, preferred to pine in poverty, as many of 
them did, and prevent an unholy marriage between the 
Church of Christ and the civil authority. The overthrow 



ists for Liberty of Conscience. 231 

of the above-named odious laws is to be attributed to their 
unremitting efforts ; they generally struck the first blow, 
and thus inspired other sects with their own intrepidity. 
It is owing to their sentiments, chiefly, as the friends of 
religious liberty, that no law abridging the freedom of 
thought or opinion touching religious worship, is now in 
force to disgrace our statute books. It is not here asserted 
that, but for their efforts, a system of persecution, cruel 
and relentless as that of Mary of England, or Catharine 
de Medici of France, would have obtained in these United 
States ; but is asserted that the Baptists have successfully 
propagated their sentiments on the subject of religious lib- 
erty, at the cost of suffering in property, in person, in limb, 
and in life. Let the sacrifice be ever so great, they have 
always freely made it, in testimony of their indignation 
against laws which would fetter the conscience. Their op- 
position to tyranny was implacable, and it mattered not 
whether the intention was to tax the people without rep- 
resentation, or to give to the civil magistrate authority to 
settle religious questions by the sword. In either case, it 
met in every Baptist an irreconcilable foe/ " 

These expressions, quoted from the Religious Denomi- 
nations, are but the sentiments of all true Baptists through- 
out the world. The ignorance of those who represent the 
Baptist church government as oppressive, or opposed to 
religious and civil freedom, is to be pitied. The Baptists 
stand alone in giving the liberty to every church member 
to act in the transaction of church duties. None have the 
right to assume the pre-eminence over his brethren. Con- 
trasting the Baptist principles with others, Chevalier 
Bunsen remarks: "How little the Na- Religious Denom. r 
tional churches of the seventeenth cen- p. 190. 



232 Equality in the Kingdom. 

tury can make head against the onsets of the Baptists, 
in countries where a great and free religious move- 
ment exists, is evinced by the fact, that, among serious 
Christians of the English race in the United States, the 
Baptist or Congregational preachers are on the increase 
more than any other sect, so that they form already the 
most numerous and most progressive community." Full 
enough has been presented to show that the present Bap- 
tists possess this Bible peculiarity of religious equality in 
the churches of Jesus Christ. 



(Baptist Succession. 23£ 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PECULIAEITY SIXTH — EESTEICTED COMMUNION. 

1. Objections to Kestkicted Communion answered. 

2. Baptist Peculiarity Sixth — Eestbicted Communion 

TESTED BY THE BlBLE. 

3. Concessions to Baptist views or Communion. 

4. Peculiarity Sixth — Communion in the Kingdom iden- 

tified with present Baptist teaching. 

Section I. — Objection to restricted communion 

ANSWERED. 

This peculiarity in Baptist faith and practice has called 
down upon them the wrath of the world. It is at present, 
to a large extent, the reproach of the Cross of Christ. 
Baptists stand out against the entire religious world, in 
offering the Lord's Supper to those only who have pro- 
fessed regeneration, and who have been buried with Christ 
in baptism, having fellowship in a church of Jesus Christ. 
This Baptist " close communion " is the great bugbear by 
which our enemies, who profess so much charity for us, 
try to make us odious in the sight of the world. Several 
objections are urged against our practice. 

First: We must not judge. We are, of Baptists not to 
late, informed that, as Baptists, we have no jwfye. 
right to judge who are qualified to approach the Lord's 
table. We are often told, by open communionists, to 
"Judge not that ye be not judged;" and, 
at the same time, they feel themselves per- 



234 (Restricted Communion. 

fectly competent to "judge " or decide who ought to ap- 
proach the Lord's table. They themselves are perfectly 
qualified to judge in this matter, but Baptists must nob 
judge ! It must not be forgotten that, while it is true that 
Ave are forbidden by the Savior to judge the hearts or 
motives of our brethren, we are authorized, by the same 

~ .. n Word of God, to " know them by their fruits/ 
Matt, 7 : 16. 

and thus decide or judge who are church 

members. Indeed, Ave have the authority laid down by 

the apostle, by Avhich Ave are required to judge Avith Avhom 

we should eat at the Lord's table. Here is the author- 

.. ^ „„,...« ity : "'But now I have written unto you 
1 Got 5 * 11—13 

not to keep company, if any man that is 

called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idola- 
ter, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner ; Avith 
such a one no not to eat. For Avhat have I to do to judge 
them also that are Avithout? do not ye judge them that 
are within ? But them that are without God judgeth. 
Therefore put away from among yourselves that Avicked 
person." Here is the authority of Heaven, to "judge 
them that are Avithin" the church, or decide who are 
members of the church, and qualified for the Supper. 
But if the argument of our opponents is correct, that all 
must eat with us at the Lord's table who think themselves 
worthy, then we must eat with all those classes of persons 
Avith whom the apostle has said, " no not to eat" ! In fact, 
the very denominations who are so A^ociferous in their 
condemnation of the Baptists for deciding whom they 
think qualified to approach the Lord's table, are guilty 
of the same thing; they all decide or " judge" whom they 
deem qualified to approach the table. And again-: in 



Objections to (Restricted Communion. 235 

condemnation of themselves our opponents undertake to 
use the expression of the apostle against us where he says : 
" Let a man examine himself, and so let 
him eat of that bread, and drink of that 
cup." Many persons quote this language in order to con- 
demn the Baptist practice, when, at the same time, they 
are totally ignorant of the connection in which it stands, 
and the characters to whom it was addressed. Upon ex- 
amination it will be found that this injunction w^as not 
given to the unbaptized, who were not church members; 

but to "the Church of God which is at _, „ _ a 
<rt . -i ti' mi - • • • 1 Cor. 1 : 2. 

Corinth. 1ms was instruction given to 

those who were actual members of a Gospel church, and 
not to them that are without, or members of some modern 
sect, set up by human ingenuity. This instruction, for 
church members to examine themselves, is the same that 
is given by every Baptist minister who administers the 
Lord's Supper. They exhort every member of the church 
to examine himself in the light of the Word of God, with 
humble prayer and supplication to God, to enable him to 
partake of the elements with due solemnity, in memory of 
a dying Savior. The fault of some of these Corinthians 
was that : " In eating, every one taketh be- 
fore other his own supper : and one is hungry, 
and another is drunken." And when the apostle had 
sharply rebuked them for their want of reverence in par- 
taking of the Supper, he then exhorted them — the actual 
church members — to examine themselves, and so eat of that 
bread and drink of that cup. The practice of our oppo- 
nents, in the misapplication of this text, exhibits the gross- 
ness of the perversion of the truth to which they continu- 
ally resort in order to bring reproach upon us. 



236 (Restricted Communion. 

Second : A want of love. Another objection urged by 
our opponents against our practice in communion, is, that 

we exhibit a want of charity or love toward 

Baptists lack 7 ,-, 7 7 -, , 7 

, r .. our brethren whom we admit to be pious per- 

charity. m r r 

sons. The word charity has been pressed 
into service in order to give currency to all the errors 
which have inundated the world for the last fifteen cen- 
turies. But it is a truth, that though " char- 
ity shall cover a multitude of sins," or faults, 
it "rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth 
in the truth." We are taught by this, that 
our charity or love for men should not cause us to violate 
the truth of God ; for if we love Jesus Christ, we must 
keep his commandments irrespective of the views, feelings, 
prejudices, or traditions of men. 

And if our love or charity for men should induce us to 
violate the laws of Jesus Christ, which would be the case 
were we to commune with those who are neither baptized 
nor members of the kingdom of Christ, it would be posi- 
tive evidence that we are not worthy of him ; for " he that 
loveth father or mother more than me, is not 
worthy of me : and he that loveth son or 
daughter more than me, is not worthy of me." It appears 
that many persons who profess to be Christians, exhibit 
more anxiety to show love to their fellow-men than to 
Jesus Christ, by the faithful performance of his command- 
ments. If necessary to follow Christ, we are commanded 
to forsake our father, and mother, and wife, and children, 
and brethren, and sisters ; yea, and our own life also, or 
we can not be his disciples. It is evident that we exhibit 
more love to our erring brethren by refusing to participate 
in their errors, than if we were to indorse their errors by 



Objections to (Restricted Communion. 237 

communing with them ; for, by the participation with them 
of a church ordinance, we thereby indorse their church 
character, and deceive them in regard to the kingdom of 
Christ ; and in this way we would not only be partaking 
of their sins, but we would do them a permanent injury 
by confirming them in error. 

This objection is wholly based on a misconception of 
the real design of the Lord's Supper. When our oppo- 
nents charge us with the want of love toward them by not 
communing with them, they show by that act that they re- 
gard the Lord's Supper as a kind of love-feast to show 
love for one another ! They partake of the Supper to show 
love for one another, instead of alone in memory of a dying 
Savior. It is the duty of the husband to love his wife ; 
must he commune with her at the Lord's table, irre- 
spective of any preparation on her part to show that love ! 
It is the duty of parents to love their children; must 
they commune with them at the Lord's table to show their 
love to them ! We are commanded by Jesus Christ to 
love our enemies who despitefully use and persecute us, as 
other denominations generally have done to Baptists; 
must we commune with them to show our love for them ! ! 
While we should love all Pedobaptists, whether they are 
friends or enemies — and I freely admit that there are many 
pious persons among them — yet we must love our Savior 
more ; and, therefore, we must not break the least of all 
his commandments and teach others to do so by commun- 
ing with them when we are confident that they have not 
yielded obedience to the terms of admission to the Supper. 
All who make this objection against Baptists, are either 
ignorant of the true design of the Supper, or they make 
an argument which they know to be without foundation. 



238 Restricted Communion. 

The Methodist Discipline says : " The Supper of the 

Lord is not only a sign of the love that 
Discipline of 1859, ^n ... i . , i ,i 

2 g ^ ' Christians ought to have among them- 
selves one to another, but rather is a sacra- 
ment of our redemption by Christ's death." Even if 
mixed communion were Scriptural, we could not consist- 
ently commune with the Methodists, from the fact, as 
shown by the Discipline, they have reduced it in part to a 
mere love-feast — a sign of love for one another. 

Third : How can we commune in heaven ? But again 

the question is asked, with an air of triumph : " If we can 

„ . TT not commune toqether here on earth, how 

Com. in Heaven. i7 . 7 A93 

can we commune together in heaven f 

And this is thought by some to be argument. But we 
answer, that the Lord's Supper is an institution belonging 
to the churches in the kingdom of Christ on earth, and 
it is only to be observed until Christ comes again ; and, 
therefore, will not be observed in heaven at all by any 
one. Such an objection only betrays the extreme igno- 
rance of him who makes it, in supposing that the Lord's 
Supper is to be perpetuated in heaven above. But if they 
mean spiritual communion, in this objection, we answer, 
that we now have such communion with all the people of 
God on earth. 

And it is further urged that the Baptists exclude from 
their communion persons with whom they expect to live 
in heaven j therefore the Baptists must regard their com- 
munion as a holier place than heaven itself. I answer 
this objection by asking, Do not the Pedobaptists them- 
selves expect to live in heaven with persons whom they ex- 
clude from their communion ? They exclude infants and 
idiots, and yet they expect to live in heaven with them. 



Tested by the (Bible. 239 

Is the Pedobaptists' communion more holy than heaven f 
Such frivolous objections lie with equal weight against 
those who make them as against Baptists. To illustrate 
the inconsistency of the Pedobaptist complaint against 
Baptists, we relate a circumstance which actually occurred. 
On a communion occasion, as the elder of a Presbyterian 
congregation was distributing the bread and wine, his own 
little boy, a " baptized " member of the church, came with 
tears, pleading with his father for the bread and wine, 
saying, "Give me some cake, give me some cider." Was 
not this " close." communion thus to reject one of the mem- 
bers of the church who had the sealing ordinance? . Baptists 
commune, at least with all their own members in fellow- 
ship, and invite all others to come to the table on the same 
terms; but Pedobaptists are so close in communion that 
they will not commune with their own infant members. 
But will it be said that the infants can not understand the 
design of the Supper ? They can certainly understand the 
communion as well as they understand baptism. The 
Greek Church is more consistent than other Pedobaptists ; 
for they give the Supper to their infant members. They 
administer it to them from a spoon. But our "close" 
communion friends will feed the old sheep and let the little 
lambs of the flock go unfed. 



Section II. — Baptist peculiarity sixth — re- 
stricted COMMUNION — TESTED BY THE BIBLE. 

The question now comes up, Is the peculiar practice of 
Baptists in regard to the Lord's Supper, which has called 
down on them the scoffs and opposition of the world, sup- 
ported by the authority of Inspiration ? First : Upon the 



240 (Restricted Communion. 

examination of the Scriptures it will be found that the 
Lord's Supper stands in point of order after baptism. 

All denominations which practice baptism at all, have, 
until recently, admitted this position ; and it is still held, 
theoretically, by nearly all Christendom, that baptism pre- 
cedes the sacred Supper ; but of late, some, in order for pop- 
ularity it would seem, have come to the conclusion that all 
classes, whether baptized or unbaptized, may, of right, ap- 
proach the Lord's" table. We have the example of the 
apostles in favor of our position; for they were all bap- 
tized before they partook of the Supper at the hands of 
Jesus Christ. This is not only shown from the fact that 
the apostles were John's disciples before they were called 
to preach by Jesus Christ, but it is proved, from the lan- 
. guage of John himself, where he said : u I indeed baptize 

~ ,, you with water unto repentance : but he that 
Matt. 3: 11. , „ . \\V. ,, T 

cometh alter me is mightier than 1, whose 

shoes I am not worthy to bear : he shall baptize you with 

the Holy Ghost, and with fire." This shows that the same 

characters who were baptized in the Holy Spirit, which 

was on the day of Pentecost, were previously baptized by 

John ; the twelve apostles were baptized in the Holy Spirit 

on the day of Pentecost; therefore, they were previously 

baptized by John. And as John's ministry closed before 

the giving of the Supper, therefore it is absolutely certain 

that the first apostles were baptized by John before they 

participated with Christ of the Lord's Supper. 

Again : That the apostles were baptized by John, is 

shown from the following : " And all the 

' ' people, hearing it, and the publicans, jus- 
new version. rr? o; r ? j ^ 

tified God, having been immersed with 
John's immersion. But the Pharisees and the lawyers 



(Baptism before the Supper. 241 

rejected the counsel of God toward themselves, not hav- 
ing been immersed by him." From this it appears that 
those who received Jesus Christ had previously been bap- 
tized by John. The true apostles received Christ ; there- 
fore they had received John's baptism. And this is con- 
firmed in the fact that the apostle, to succeed Judas, must 
" have companied with us " — the other apos- 
tles — " all the time that the Lord Jesus went 
in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John 
unto that same day that he was taken up from us, must 
one be ordained to be a witness with us of his resurrec- 
tion." As none were eligible to the apostleship except those 
who had companied with the apostles beginning from the 
baptism of John, therefore the apostles began from the bap- 
tism of John. Jesus chose his first disciples from among 
the disciples of John, otherwise he would have rejected 
John's work and ministry ; but as John made ready a peo- 
ple prepared for the Lord, the Savior received the people 
that were prepared under the ministry of John ; therefore, 
the apostles who had been the disciples of John, had been 
baptized by him. But if the apostles were not baptized be- 
fore the communion, they w T ere not baptized at all ; and this 
would place the apostles in the kingdom, that requires bap- 
tism of all, without baptism. The denial of the baptism 
of the apostles w 7 as introduced to serve a theory. 

Again : The Pentecostian converts did not partake of 
the Lord's Supper till after they had been baptized. The 
order of the proceedings of that day was — 1st. That Jesus 
was preached as Lord and Christ; 2d. The people were 
cut to the heart and cried out; 3d. They w r ere commanded 
to repent and be baptized; 4th. And after they were 
baptized that gladly received the Word, " they continued 



242 (Restricted Communion. 

steadfastly in the apostle's doctrine and fel- 
lowship, and in breaking of bread, and in 
prayers." Here the breaking of bread in the communion 
came after baptism. And those who would take the com- 
munion before baptism, violate the apostolic order of the 
proceedings on the day of Pentecost. The same is also 
taught in the commission, where the Savior said : " Go ye 

therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing 

MaH.28: 19,20. ,. . > ' l „ * 

them in the name of the Jb ather, and 01 the 

Son, and of the Holy Ghost : teaching them to observe all 
things whatsoever I have commanded you : and, lo ! I am 
with you alway, even unto the end of the world." Un- 
der the commission, baptism was the first duty enjoined 
after the exercise of true faith ; therefore no unbaptized per- 
son, according to the commission, can approach the Lord's 
table. It can not be shown that any person in the apos- 
tolic age ever dared to approach the Lord's table before 
and without baptism. Baptists do not regard anything 
except the immersion of a true believer as baptism at all ; 
therefore Baptists can not commune with the members of 
those societies which practice another baptism. And more : 
baptism, to be valid, must be performed by the sanction or 
authority of a church of Jesus Christ acting as the execu- 
tive in his kingdom ; therefore Baptists can not consist- 
ently commune with those persons who have received 
immersion in those human societies which have been set 
up without the sanction of Heaven. And again : the 
order of the witnesses which bear testimony on earth, is 

_, _ . _ . laid down as follows : " And there are three 
1 John 5:8. , , . . . . 

that bear witness m earth, the Spirit, and the 

water, and the blood : and these three agree in one." How 

unmistakable the order of Heaven. The Holy Spirit first 



(Baptism before the Supper. 243 

bears witness with our spirits that we are the children of 
God by faith in the risen Savior; second, the water, or 
burial in baptism, testifies that we are dead to sin, or freed 
from it ; and our rising out of the water shows our faith 
in a risen Savior, and is a pledge of our future resurrec- 
tion from the dead. The blood, the third witness, is the 
emblematic blood of the Supper, and testifies of the death 
of Christ by the shedding of his blood for the remission 
of sins. These three witnesses bear testimony on earth, 
in perfect agreement, in the order of Sjnrit, icaier and 
blood; and as the water of baptism bears testimony after 
the witness of the Spirit, so the emblematic blood in the 
Supper bears testimony after the witness of the water in 
baptism. He who would willfully invert the order of these 
witnesses, abolish or change their testimony, must be con- 
sidered as exercising the authority of Antichrist. The 
Baptists are the only people on earth whose practice co- 
incides with the testimony of these three witnesses. It is 
now fully made out that, in the apostolic age, Baptism 
always preceded the Lord's Supper. 

Second: Jesus Christ ivas baptized before he participated 
xcith his disciples in the Supper. This is not denied by 
any one, because the baptism of Jesus took place before 
he entered his public ministry, and the giving of the Sup- 
per occurred the night before his crucifixion. Those who 
presume to approach the Lord's table before they have 
been buried in baptism, claim a privilege neither taken 
nor granted by Jesus Christ. The Savior says that : u It 
is enough for the disciple that he be as his 
master, and the servant as his lord ;" but 
those who approach the table without baptism have usurped 
a privilege above their Lord and Master. The example 



244 Restricted Com- 



munion. 



of Jesus Christ extends still further : when he instituted 
this Supper, he entered alone with his disciples into a 
" large upper room/' where he distrib- 
uted the elements, and said, " This do in 
remembrance of me." So, then, the most restricted, and, as 
some would say, the " closest " communion that ever was 
held on earth, was administered by the Savior to his disci- 
ples. And were the same Savior to return to the earth, 
in the form of a servant, like he was then, with his same 
disciples in this our day, and repeat the same communion 
as at the first, these same people, who boast so much of 
charity, would stigmatize them as " close communion Bap- 
tists." So, then, when Baptists are reproached for their 
practice, they should consider it an honor to bear reproach 
for Christ's sake. 

Jesus Christ was despised and rejected of men, and so 
are Baptists, on account of following the example of Jesus 
Christ. 

Third : The Lord's Supper was fixed by himself in his 
kingdom. He said, while at the table at the time of the 
institution of the Supper : " I appoint unto you a king- 
dom as my father hath appointed unto 
Luke 22: 29,30. J f * M 

me; that ye may eat and drink at my table 

in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve 
tribes of Israel." It has already been shown that Jesus 
Christ set up his own kingdom with visible subjects, laws, 
and ordinances. And here we are informed that the dis- 
ciples must eat and drink at his table in his kingdom. Yes; 
the Lord's table is fixed by the fiat of heaven in his king- 
dom. We boldly affirm that the tables spread in any other 
church or kingdom are not the Lord's tables, whatever 
may be the forms and solemn ceremonies attached to them. 



The Table in the Kingdom. 245 

The table spread in the Romish Church is not the Lord's 
table ; but it is the table of Antichrist. And those who 
partake of it are guilty of idolatry. The table spread in 
Mr. Wesley's Society is not the Lord's table ; it is Wesley's 
table. And the same might be said of all the communions 
established by men, from the time of King Henry VIII. 
down to the establishment of the Reformed Society in 
1827. As these societies, established by men, whatever 
may be the moral character of their members, form no 
part of the everlasting kingdom established by Jesus him- 
self, in which he placed the table, therefore the Baptists 
who are members of that kingdom can not extend the 
communion to these human kingdoms without violating 
the positive command of Jesus Christ, to eat and drink at 
his table in his kingdom. And the communion with these 
societies would be to make a human organization equal to 
the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The Lord's table is alone 
to be found in the kingdom that Jesus Christ set up, and if 
we were to place the elements out of that kingdom, in order 
to please men, it could not be properly called the Lord's Sup- 
per ; but would be another supper. We, as the Lord's serv- 
ants, are not authorized to move the table out of the house 
to please those who think themselves too holy to enter the 
kingdom of Jesus Christ. Some act and talk as if they 
thought the Lord's Supper was altogether under the control 
of men ; and that they have a right to invite or prohibit 
whom they please. This certamly is an egregious mistake. 
Men have no discretionary powers in this matter whatever. 
Jesus Christ himself built the house, or kingdom, and es- 
tablished his table in the house ; and laid down the laws 
of approach to it ; and, therefore, he that would change or 
abolish those laws has proved himself a daring usurper 



246 (Restricted Communion. 

of the authority which alone belongs to Jesus Christ. 
Those who find fault on account of the communion being 
restricted to the kingdom, are finding fault with Jesus 
Christ. Notwithstanding the Lord's Supper is restricted 
to the kingdom of Christ, yet all the children of God are 
invited to participate at the Lord's table in the kingdom. 
They should not be invited to approach that table in the 
neglect or contempt for the laws of Jesus Christ. Every 
one must get into the house, or kingdom, before he ap- 
proaches the table which is fixed in the kingdom. When 
we invite our neighbors to eat at our tables of the things 
necessary for the body, we invite them on the same terms 
with every member of the family. It would be very un- 
kind in one, after refusing such an offer, to narrate through- 
out the neighborhood that his neighbor would not let him 
eat at his table ! Such is the practice of those who talk so 
much about " charity." I repeat, that the Baptists invite 
all the children of God to commune at the Lord's table 
upon the same terms that they themselves approach 
that table ; and if they refuse to come, it is because their 
own doctrines or traditions stand as a barrier to keep them 
away. We invite them first into the house with us, and 
then to the table of the Lord, upon the terms laid down 
by the Master of the house, to which all must submit in 
coming to the table. 

Fourth: To commune indiscriminately with all the sects, 
would be the indorsement oj their doctrines of church or- 
ganization. It is taught by nearly all the professing world, 
that the Lord's Supper is an institution belonging solely 
to the churches of Christ. Therefore, when we receive the 
members from the various human societies to the Supper, 
we say, by that act, that he is a church member; and if so, 



The Table in ike Kingdom. 247 

his baptism is valid, though received in infancy, or in 
order to the pardon of sins. So, if we should commune 
with those human societies, then we would be liable to the 
charge of bidding god-speed to all the monstrous ab- 
surdities of the so-called Christian world. But we are 
warned against these traditions of men by the Savior, in 
the following language : " In vain do they 
worship me, teaching for doctrines the com- 
mandments of men." And Paul warns us against these 
traditions, as follows: " Touch not; taste 
not; handle not; which all are to perish 
with the using; after the commandments and doctrines of 
men : which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will 
worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not 
in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh." But those 
who commune with the societies that hold these traditions 
and commandments of men, have not only touched, tasted, 
or handled them, but they have publicly indorsed them by 
indorsing the church which holds them. But does John 
recommend this mixed fellowship and communion ? No ; 

for he said : " If there come any to you, rt T 7 ^ A . .. A 
, , . i" . i • . i • 2 John, 10-14. 

and bring not this doctrine, receive him not 

into your house ; neither bid him god-speed. For he that 
biddeth him god-speed, is partaker of his evil deeds." 
John says, "receive him not" but the popular communion- 
ist says, "receive him" ! 

To illustrate the folly of this popular communion sys- 
tem, I will here relate an occurrence which took place in 
my own labors several years ago : I called at the dwell- 
ing of Mr. P., a prominent Universalist ; and he immedi- 
ately introduced the claims of Universalism and advocated 
them with enthusiasm. He was, however, ignorant of my 



248 (Restricted Communion. 

denominational locality; and lie supposed that I was a 
Methodist. And when he felt that his foundation was 
being swept away before the Bible truth, he exclaimed : 
" The Methodists admit that the Universalists are an or- 
thodox church by communing with them." I replied : 
" I am not a Methodist ; neither am I responsible for their 
inconsistencies." He then exclaimed : " The Presbyte- 
rians will commune with us." I replied : " I am not a 
Presbyterian." He then, in his excitement, exclaimed : 

"The Baptists ;" I remarked, interrupting him, 

" don't say Baptists." He then, in the extremity of his 
confusion, said: "The Baptists are a bigoted, narrow- 
hearted set, any how." I remarked that " The Baptists 
have too much consistency to indorse such an abominable 
doctrine as Universalism by communing with its members." 
Had I been in the place of the popular communionist, 
I should have been puzzled for an answer. We could 
mention cases where Universalists have taken the Supper 
with the open communionists at their popular tables. Do 
not the open communionists bid god-speed to Universal- 
ism? And, according to this open theory, a Roman Catho- 
lic, Mormon, Shaking Quaker, or Infidel, may approach 
the sacred Supper provided he thinks himself worthy ! It 
is evident to every thinking mind, that, to invite the mem- 
bers of the different sects to the communion, is to indorse 
their church organization and doctrines, whatever they 
' may be. How, then, could any Baptist recognize the 
sprinkling of infants as baptism, by communing with those 
who practice it? In exhibiting the inconsistency of Robert 

Hall, in advocating open communion, the 
tt-Op™ Com lamented John L WaRer id th t « M 
by Waller, p. 33. 

Hall had surely forgotten the history of 



Mixed Communion Sanctions Error. ■ 249 

infant baptism; a system, the natural and necessary tend- 
ency of which was to obliterate the lines of demarcation 
between the church and the world — to unite church and 
state — to remove the distinction between those who serve 
God and those who serve him not. Infant baptism is the 
pillar of Popery. That monstrous superstructure of fraud 
and folly could not survive two generations if infant 
baptism did not support it. By that rite, in each gen- 
eration, not less than one hundred millions of persons be- 
came the subjects of the Pope. Millions per annum are 
kidnapped in their cradles, and made the vassals of other 
churches and creeds by what Mr. Hall is pleased rhetori- 
cally to class among 'the points non-essential. '" In view 
of these monstrous evils of infant baptism, what Baptist 
is willing to indorse it by communion with Pedobaptist 
churches ? 

Again : in exhibiting the utter folly of Mr. Hall's mixed 
theory of communion) Mr. Waller remarks : " With him 
it matters not whether a believer be im- 
mersed into the name of the triune God, l a ' ls ' ^ li 

u 4i. ,11 • il i i Com -> P- 62 ' 

or wnether a worthless person in helpiess 

babyhood has had some water and oil poured, by a papal 
priest, or midwife, or scullion, upon its forehead and eye- 
brows ; or whether, upon the responses of ghostly parents, 
water simply has been poured upon the little head by an 
Episcopal prelate, priest, or deacon ; or whether he has 
had water sprinkled or poured upon him by a Methodist 
or Presbyterian minister : any one of all these things en- 
titles him to membership in the church, according to Mr. 
Hall." 

In view of the reckless folly of the doctrine of open 
communion, I must be permitted to say, with elder Wal- 



250 (Restricted Co? 



mmunion 



ler, that : " A free-communion Baptist is, in spirit and feel- 
ing, no Baptist at all. He not only dis- 
*' " ' cards whatever makes us Baptists, but he 
can not get along without misrepresenting our system, and 
making it palpable to every one that he cherishes for us a 
feeling of contempt, and loves all others better than those 
whose name he bears, and to whose association he affects 
to belong." 

We have now had ample proof from the Bible that 
this peculiarity of the Baptist practice concerning com- 
munion is supported by the Word of God and the prac- 
tice of the apostolic age. The great advocate of open 
communion, Robert Hall himself, said that : " The apos- 
tles, it is acknowledged, admitted none to 
Quoted by Waller, ^ ^^ g but guch ag we 

Open Com., p. 21. . , " . . f 

viously baptized/ 7 Inis being so, how 

dare any one violate the example of the inspired apostles ? 



Section III. — Concessions to baptist views of 
communion. 

First: "Neander, in his great Church History, speak- 
ing of the Lord's Supper, in the early ages of Christianity, 
says: 'At this celebration, as may easily 

tm d Com Wall 20 be concluded > no on ' e COuld be P resent 
who was not a member of the Christian 

Church, and incorporated into it by the rite of baptism.' " 

Second: The learned Dr. Dwight, a congregationalist, 

and president of Yale College, remarks that: " It is an 

indispensable qualification for this ordl- 

DwigMsThedogy, nan( ^ fhat ^ candidate for communion 

be a member of the visible Church of 



Concessions to (Baptist Views. 251 

Christ in full standing. By this I intend, that he shall 
be such a member of the church as I have formerly des- 
cribed — to wit : that he should be a person of piety ; that 
he should have made a public profession of religion, and, 
that he should have been baptized." 

Tliird: Waller says: "The late Dr. Griffin, formerly 
president of Williams College, Mass., and 
one of the most talented and erudite of 
the congregational clergy of New England, in his cele- 
brated letter on communion, says : i I agree with the advo- 
cates of close communion on two things : 1. That baptism 
is an initiating ordinance, which introduces into the visi- 
ble church. Of course, where there is no baptism there 
are no visible churches. 2. That we ought not to com- 
mune with those who are not baptized, and, of course, are 
not church members, even if we regard them as Chris- 
tians. Should a pious Quaker so far depart from his 
principles as to wish to commune with me at the Lord's 
table, while he yet refused to be baptized, I could not re- 
ceive him, because there is such a relation established h&- 
tween the two ordinances that I have no right to separate 
them ; or, in other words, I have no right to send the sa- 
cred elements out of the church/ " 

Fourth : Again, Waller says : " The Baltimore Chris- 
tian Advocate, an organ of the Methodist 
Episcopal Church South, holds the fol- p6h m ' 9 ^' 
lowing language : i That a good man may be a firm be- 
liever in the necessity of adult immersion, we do not, for 
a moment, doubt ; and that they who believe this, should 
decline communion with the unbaptized, is reasonable and 
consistent. To be offended with the refusal of these to 



252 (Restricted Communion. 

commune with us, is absurd; to reproach them for it, 
unkind and unjustifiable/ " 

Fifth : Again, Mr. Waller says that : " The Boston Re- 

„ ~„ corder, Congregationalist, in a late issue, 

Open Com., p. 86. it*- i ^ 

says : ' It we receive people to the com- 
munion without baptism, we shall practically treat bap- 
tism as a nullity, and contribute to its being wholly 
abandoned/ " 

Sixth : Dr. Beecher says : " If our Baptist brethren are 
right on the mode and subjects of bap- 
quo e y a er y ^ gm ^ ^qj are right on the question of com- 
munion/' 
Seventh : The Rev. F. G. Hibbard, of the Genesee Con- 
ference, in his work on baptism, published by the Metho- 
dist Conference, said : " The question on the mode of bap- 
tism borrows all its importance from the 

Hibbard on Bapt. ,. <t m • x- u x- *x i.<? 

17 „ 1 ^. ^ ' question: 'Is Christian baptism itself es- 
sentially prerequisite to a Scriptural par- 
ticipation of the Lord's Supper ? ' This latter topic has 
been treated adjunctively with the question of the mode, 
and lends to it an unspeakable interest. Divines have 
not entered the polemic arena to show their skill and tact 
at debate. The long and painful controversy on the sub- 
ject of the mode of Christian baptism, has not been merely 
a display of intellectual parts. The Corinthians are justly 
censurable for wasting time and intellectual power, and 
brotherly charity, in a controversy concerning ' meats and' 
drinks, and new moons, and holy days ; ? the schoolmen 
have exhibited themselves to the ridicule of all succeed- 
ing generations, for their fruitless and eternal disputations 
on such points as, whether there is any possible distinction 
between essence and existence ; whether an angel, or pure 



(Dr. Hibbardfs Concession. 253 

spirit, can pass from one absolute point to another with- 
out passing over the intermediate space ; and nearly allied 
to such topics must be the question of the mode of bap- 
tism , if it have no further importance than the mere con- 
venience of fitness of an outward ceremony. But the case 
is far otherwise. The bearing which the mode of baptism 
is alleged to have on the validity of the ordinance, and 
the connection which it bears to the lawful approach to 
the Lord's table, and to the rights and immunities of 
church-fellowship, — these invest it with a character of 
paramount importance." 

" The question no longer respects merely a ceremony 
of religion, but has assumed the bold 

and alarming aspect of chtjkch or ko \^ on ap "' 

i5 i . p. 173. 

church ! Every ordinance, every insti- 
tution, every rite and privilege of visible Christianity, is 
drawn along and merged into the bosom of this doubtful 
controversv. Within its am-ple folds are embraced the 
question of true Protestantism and pure Christianity; 
while its capacious vortex has set in motion the very pil- 
lars of the visible church, threatening to whelm it in its 
troubled waters. The issues of this controversy are to 
decide whether the Pedobaptist churches are the true 
churches of Christ; whether their ministers hold their 
commission to administer the ordinances by a lawful ten- 
ure ; whether their members have any right to approach 
to the table of the Lord, and whether the privileges of the 
church may be conceded to them without desecration. 
Verily, the question of the mode of baptism is a far-reach- 
ing subject. Without controversy, it is a grave theme. 
Before entering upon the argument before us, it is but 
just to remark, that in one principle the Baptist and Pe- 



254 (Restricted Communion. 

dobaptist churches agree. They both agree in rejecting 
from communion at the table of the Lord, and in denying 
the rights of church-fellowship to, all who have not been 
baptized. Valid baptism they consider as essential to 
constitute visible church membership. This also we hold. 
The only question, then, that here divides us, is, 'What 
is essential to valid baptism?' The Baptists, in passing 
the sweeping sentence of disfranchisement upon all other 
Christian churches, have only acted upon a principle held 
in common with all other Christian churches — viz : that 
baptism is essential to church membership." 

" They have denied our baptism, and, as unbaptized 

persons, w T e have been excluded from their 
i ar on ap ., ^k^ That they err greatly in their 

views of Christian baptism, we, of course, 
believe. But, according to their views of baptism, they 
certainly are consistent in restricting thus their commun- 
ion. We would not be understood as passing a judgment 
of approval upon their course ; but we say their views of 
baptism force them upon the ground of strict communion, 
and herein they act upon the same principles as other 
churches — i. e. 9 they admit only those whom they deem 
baptized persons to the communion table. Of course, they 
must be their own judges as to what baptism is. It is ev- 
ident that, according to our views of baptism, we can ad- 
mit them to our communion ; but with their views of bap- 
tism, it is equally evident, they can never reciprocate the 
courtesy. And the charge of close communion is no more 
applicable to the Baptists than to us, inasmuch as the 
question of church-fellowship with them is determined by 
as liberal principles as it is with any other Protestant 
churches, so far, I mean, as the present subject is con- 



Concessions to (Baptist Views. 265 

cerned — i. e., it is determined by valid baptism. Now, 
this being the case, does it not become a measure of respon- 
sible moment to decide upon the question of the mode of 
baptism ? Indeed, so awful are the aspects of this sub- 
ject, that thousands have feare,d to assume a decided posi- 
tion in reference to it. They have held to exclusive im- 
mersion, and at the same time have held to catholic com- 
munion, or communion with persons who have not been 
immersed — an anomaly and absurdity that presents a sin- 
gular contrast to the characteristic symmetry of Christian 
theology." 

I have introduced this long quotation from Mr. Hib- 
bard on account of the strength of his argument in show- 
ing the utter folly of holding to immersion as the only 
baptism, and at the same time practicing mixed commun- 
ion. Hibbard justly says that the Baptist "views of bap- 
tism force them upon the ground of strict communion ; " 
"and the charge of close communion is no more 

APPLICABLE TO THE BAPTISTS THAN TO US." If all 

Pedobaptist writers and speakers would thus admit the con- 
sistency of Baptist practice in communion, though they may 
think us in error, it would be much better for themselves, 
as well as for us. In showing the inconsistency of the 
open communion Baptists, the same writer says : " But it 
is far less responsible, in our estimation, 
to hold that baptism may be administered l ^J^ rC m a ^ '' 
by sprinkling or pouring, than to hold fel- 
lowship at the Lord's table with persons we do not believe 
have received Christian baptism." 

Eighth : Dr. Wall, the Vicar of Shoreham, the learned 
Episcopalian, in his history of infant baptism, says: 
"Among all the absurdities that ever were held, none ever 



256 (Restricted Communion. 

His. Inf. Bapt, maintained, that any person should partake 
P' of the communion before he was baptized." 

Ninth : Drs. Coke and Asbury, the founders of Method- 
ist Episcopacy, in their notes on the Discipline of the 
Methodist Church, say : "We must also observe, that our 
elders should be very cautious how they 
is ory j i ip., a( j m j£ j- ^ e communion persons who are 

not in our society. It would be highly 
injurious to our brethren if we suffered any to partake of 
the Lord's Supper with them whom we would not readily 
admit into our society on application made to us. Those 
whom we judge unfit to partake of our profitable, pruden- 
tial means of grace, we should most certainly think im- 
proper to be partakers of an ordinance which has-been 
expressly instituted by Christ himself." 

Tenth: Again, Bishop Hedding, on the administration 
of the Discipline of the Methodists, asks : " Is it proper 
for a preacher to give out a general invitation in the con- 
gregation to 'members in good standing in other churches' 
to come to the Lord's Supper? No; for the most un- 
worthy persons are apt to think themselves in good stand- 
ing. And sometimes persons who are not members of any 
church will take the liberty, from such an invitation, to 
come. And again, there are some communities, called 
churches, which, from heretical doctrines or immoral prac- 
tices, have no claim to the privileges of Christians, and 
ought not to be admitted to the communion of any Chris- 
tian people. The rule in that case is as follows, and it 
ought to be strictly adhered to : ' Let no person who is 
rot a member of our church be admitted to the communion 
without examination, and some token given, by an elder 
or deacon. No person shall be admitted to the Lord's 



Concessions to (Baptist. Views. 257 

Sapper among us who is guilty of any practice for which 
we would exclude a member of our church/ — Discipline, 
page 75." Here the bishop of the Methodist Church is 
opposed to open communion, and refers to the Discipline 
to sustain his position. And it is evident that, according 
to the Discipline, no Baptist can commune with the Method- 
ists ; for the law is, that no person can commune " among us 
who is guilty of any practice for which we . 

would exclude a member of our church." 

And as all are liable to exclusion "who _. . _ rt „ 
. iTi . Discip., p. 129. 

hold and disseminate, publicly or pri- 
vately, doctrines which are contrary to our Articles of 

Religion " or "inveigh against either our _. . 
-, . nr,. • i- i n D^ip., V. 144. 

doctrines or Discipline, such person so ol- 

fending shall be first reproved by the senior minister, or 
preacher, of his circuit, and if he persist in such pernicious 
practices, he shall be expelled from the church ; " and it is 
known to all, that Baptists not only oppose the articles of 
the Methodist religion, but they inveigh against their doc- 
trine and Discipline, and, therefore, would be excluded 
were they members of the Methodist society; but as none 
are allowed to commune whom the Methodists would ex- 
clude from their society, therefore, according to the Dis- 
cipline, no Baptist ran commune with the Methodists, 
And more : the Methodist preacher who would invite them, 
is guilty of the violation of his own solemn oath, which he 
has taken to observe the Discipline in every point, great 
and small. While some Pedobaptists are continually up- 
braiding us for close communion, they forget that they 
themselves are guilty of a more unscripturally close com- 
munion than ourselves. Vv T hile we invite to the Supper 
all of our own members, and, in fact, every child of God 



258 (Restricted Communion. 

to enter the kingdom and approach the Lord's table 
scripturally, these Pedobaptist preachers refuse to take to 
their Supper the most innocent of all their membership, — I 
mean the babies whom they have kidnapped, sentenced, 
and condemned to Methodism, by forcing them into the 
"Methodist Church" by sprinkling or pouring! Will 
they say that an infant Methodist is too young to under- 
stand the design of the Supper? If so, he is too young to 
understand the design of baptism and church membership. 
The Greek Church is more consistent than the modern 
Pedobaptist sects; for they extend the Supper to every 
baptized infant, though his age may be only eleven days. 
What would be thought of my consistency were I to make 
a feast and sound a trumpet to proclaim my charity, and 
invite strangers to my supper; but after all, it turns out 
that I have debarred my own children — a part of my own 
family — from the feast? It would be thought that my 
ado about my superior charity was only for popular effect. 
I am fully satisfied that open communion originated in the 
desire for popularity. Its object is to please men, not God. 
The Modern Reformers hold strict communion in theory, 
but loose communion in practice. Their leaders know that 
strict communion is Scriptural, but their desire for popu- 
larity is so strong that they practice open communion. Mr. 
Campbell, their founder and leader, has repeatedly ex- 
pressed himself in opposition to open communion. I here 
introduce one statement from him, as follows : " We do not 

recollect that we have ever argued out the 
Mill. Harb., vol mer it s of this i free and open communion 

system/ But one remark we must offer 
in passing, that we must regard it as one of the weakest 
and most vulnerable causes ever plead ; and that the i great ' 



Folly of Communion with (Reformers. 259 

Mr. Hall, as he is called, has, in his defense of the prac- 
tice, made it appear worse than before. In attempting to 
make it reasonable, he has only proved how unreasonable 
and unscriptural it is." And yet, in the face of this strong 
condemnation of Mr. Campbell, his disciples practice this 
" unreasonable and unscriptural" open communion sys- 
tem. These modern disciples are more inconsistent than 
any other " open " communion society on earth. The Pe- 
dobaptist open communionists hold the branch church sys- 
tem, — and they only propose to commune with those whom 
they regard as church members, or at least, Christians, — 
but Reformers wish to commune with those whom they 
regard as members of Antichrist and children of the devil. 
These people who profess to have escaped from the cor- 
ruptions and smoke of Babylon, will seek the opportunity 
to commune with Baptists and others whom they regard 
as a part of Babylon and Antichrist ! They complain if 
they are not permitted to commune with the Antichristian 
sects. When they do this, do they not return to " their 
wallowing in the mire"? They either do not believe 
what they say of others, or they are guilty of willfull 
idolatry in symbolizing with Antichrist. Which horn of 
this dilemma will they choose ? Elder J. L. Waller sets 
forth the utter absurdity of communion with this sect, as 
follows : " The Reformers do not regard 
the Baptists as members of the Church "' 

of Christ. They proclaim us to be schismatics or secta- 
rians. They affirm that we have built upon another 
foundation than the sacred Scriptures — that we are one of 
the daughters of mystical Babylon. Hence, their chief 
work has been to reform us and to construct us into a 
veritable church. They call upon us to forsake our evil 



260 (Restricted Communion. 

ways, and to follow them in the paths which they honor 
with their footprints. And whenever they can get a Bap- 
tist to join them, they rejoice more over him than over 
ninety and nine wicked persons who need repentance. 

If they regard ours as churches of God, then they are 
guilty of egregious wrong in producing schism in the body 
of Christ, which they every-where attempt, and which, in 
many cases, they have but too successfully accomplished ; 
and if they do not regard ours as churches of God, then 
they can not, according to that Bible which they profess 
so dearly to reverence, wish sacramental communion with 
us. According to the first supposition, they are too sinful 
for our fellowship ; and according to the last, we are too 
sinful for theirs. Either way, and intercommunion is 
wholly out of the question, — it is but the communion of 
light and darkness." 

Yet, in the face of all these facts, the modern Reformers 
are guilty of the very absurdity which involves them in 
hypocrisy and guilt in the sight of God. Mr. Waller 
shows the utter folly of Baptists, when they commune 
with Campbellites, in the following words : " In many of 
the reformed i congregations/ too, are per- 

a ' \„ *' sons who have been excluded from Baptist 

pp. /6, 77. # x 

churches for sundry misdemeanors and 
immoralities, and yet have been taken into the brotherhood 
of the Reformation without any regard to our feelings or 
discipline in the premises. This, our readers will bear 
witness, is no mere fancy supposition to serve a purpose. 
Such examples, unfortunately, exist too abundantly. Do 
not Baptists, then, in fellowshiping such at the Lord's 
table, and as true church members, proclaim, to all intents 
and purposes, their own want of ecclesiastical existence — 



Open Communion Injurious. 261 

that to them belong none of the rights and privileges of a 
Christian church ? Is it not an admission that they have 
no Scriptural right to receive and exclude members? Is it 
not, in short, an acknowledgment as palpable as it is humil- 
iating, that everything which the reformed 'proclaimed 
have preached and published respecting our sectarianism 
and our kindredship to the papal harlot, is just and true? 
As matters now stand between ourselves and the Reforin- 
ers, it would be far better for us to become members with 
them, than to commune with them. That would be more 
consistent and manly. It is better and more honorable to 
surrender our cause than to betray it. Let us be open 
enemies rather than traitors." 

I am persuaded that no Baptist who understands the 
dreadful import of his act, will ever so far betray the 
cause of his Master as to commune with those who preach 
u another Gospel." On this point, Mr. Waller further 

says : " Baptists agree with Mr. Campbell 

• , • • ,1 , i , j Wal. Open Com.. 

in maintaining that none but immersed ^ r 

believers in Jesus Christ have a right to 
come to his table ; because only such are fit for member- 
ship in his visible churches, and because the Supper was 
ordained by him to be a church ordinance : but they be- 
lieve his theory of the plan of salvation to be unscriptural 
and pernicious. Thus believing, they can not, by inviting 
Reformers to their communion, recognize their congrega- 
tions as Gospel churches." In fact, it would be the full 
indorsement of the popish dogma of baptismal salvation, 
to receive Campbellites to our communion, or to commune 
with them. 

In conclusion, it should be remembered that the heaviest 
judgments of Almighty God fell upon ancient Israel for 



262 (Restricted Communion. 

mixed fellowship, mixed worship, and mixed marriages, 
with the surrounding nations. And it was the settled 
policy of the enemies of Israel, when they failed to subdue 
them by force, to try to seduce them to commune with 
them in their worship. And, in like manner, when the 
various opposing parties of earth have failed to overthrow 
the Baptists by fire and sword, they now, in order to get 
us to surrender our principles, cry " charity," and propose 
to commune with us. When Sanballat and Tobiah failed 
to hinder the rebuilding of Jerusalem by force, they then 
sent messengers to persuade Nehemiah to come down from 
his work, and ftieet them in council, in some of the villages 
of Ono : but they thought to do him mischief. And so 
our ecclesiastical enemies, who have failed to check the 
progress of the Baptist denomination by physical force, 
have now changed their policy, and wish to commune with 
them ! It comes with an ill grace from the members of 
those denominations whose skirts are all stained with Bap- 
tist blood, to propose now, as they have no power to per- 
secute with the sword, to commune with the Baptists. 

We have now seen that the peculiar practice of the 
Baptists in regard to the Lord's Supper, is not only sus- 
tained by the Word of God and the practice of the first 
churches, but it is admitted to be consistent by the wisest 
men of other denominations. 



Section IV. — Peculiarity sixth — restricted com- 
munion — IDENTIFIED AMONG MODERN BAPTISTS. 

It is wholly unnecessary to array many proofs on this 
point. The standing charge of " close communion " is 
enough to settle the point, that Baptists are strict in their 



(Restricted Communion among (Baptists. 263 

terms of communion. Because of this peculiar feature in 
Baptist practice, they are called " uncharitable," " selfish," 
" bigoted," and " narrow-hearted," with many other ugly 
names of reproach. It would seem that our opponents 
suppose that they have a perfect right to fix any terms of 
communion which they may deem proper. They have 
overlooked the fact, that Jesus Christ has fixed the terms 
of approach to the table, and we have no more right to 
change his order than we have to establish infant baptism, 
or any other Popish ceremony. The complaint ought not, 
therefore, to be made against Baptists, but against him 
who made the terms " narrow." In fact, the reproach of 
what the world calls " close communion " falls upon him 
who said, "Straight is the gate and narrow is the way 
that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it." 
Baptists are called to suffer reproach for the sake of Jesus 
Christ; for it has already been abundantly proved that 
the Savior instituted the Supper as held by the Baptists. 
Restricted communion is practiced by about fifteen thou- 
sand Baptist churches in America ; and the Baptist pul- 
pit and press advocate the same divinely instituted order. 
Strict communion is distinctly stated in the various ex- 
pressions of faith published by Baptists. Quite a num- 
ber of books and tracts have been written in defense of 
the Bible order of the Supper. Brethren Kiffin, Booth, 
Fuller, and Orchard in England, and in America nearly 
all our writers, have wielded their pens against "open 
communion." Amidst the multitude of writers in Amer- 
ica on the communion question, we mention the names, 
Curtis, Howell, Waller, and Gardner, who have produced 
books in defense of restricted communion. The " Church 
Communion," by the last-named author, is a newly-pub- 



264 (Restricted Communion. 

lished work of great value. It is conceded that some 
persons called Baptists have adopted the popular system 
of open communion ; but, by the admission of nearly all, 
they are inconsistent with their own professions, and they 
stultify themselves by the indorsement of the things which 
they do not believe. Professor Curtis affirms, truly, that : 
u The principle upon which mixed com- 

rog. ap . rin., muil i on re sts, involves a breach of trust ; 
p. 296. . J 

because baptism and the Lord's Supper 

are committed to the custody and guardianship of the vis- 
ible churches of Christ, as such, which are the trustees, the 
administrators of these ordinances, by divine appoint- 
ment." We are commanded to mark them which cause 
divisions contrary to the doctrine of Christy and u avoid 
them;" but our open-communion brethren would say, 
" commune with them " ! The views of Baptists are ex- 
pressed in the twenty-second article of the Confession of 
Faith, published by Joseph Belcher in the Religious De- 
nominations. This article expresses the Baptist doctrine 

of communion as follows : " The Supper 

Reliqious Denom., /? ji x jt • j.«x 4. j i i • 

Xo oi the Lord Jesus was instituted by him 

p. 203. . . J 

the same night wherein he was betrayed, 
to be observed in his churches unto the end of the world, 
for the perpetual remembrance, and showing forth the 
sacrifice of himself in his death." 

As the communion is held by nearly all to be a church 
ordinance, therefore none except church members can ap- 
proach it without the violation of the order of the Lord's 
house. It is easy to see, that when we commune with all 
denominations, we admit the church character and claims 
of all denominations ; and we thereby indorse the ordi- 
nances and superstitions of all these societies. Baptists 



(Restricted Communion among (baptists. 265 

do not regard those societies of human origin and ordi- 
nances as churches of Jesus Christ, and, consequently, 
they do not commune with them. Baptists are not charged 
with holding restricted communion for worldly gain or 
popularity. Considering the weakness of the flesh and 
the desire for popular favor, together with the tremendous 
pressure brought to bear against Baptists, it is a matter 
of wonder that they withstand the popular tide even as 
well as they do. We find the Baptists standing alone, 
among all the parties of Christendom, in the preservation 
of the Lord's table in his kingdom, by the withholding of 
the emblems of the Savior's broken body and shed Wood 
from those who have not been buried with Christ in bap- 
tism upon a profession of faith and regeneration, and are 
without true church fellowship. 



266 The True Church (Persecuted. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PECULIARITY SEVENTH.— THE TRUE CHURCH PERSE- 
CUTED. 

1. Baptist Peculiarity Seventh — The true Church Per- 

secuted — Tested by the Bible. 

2. Peculiarity Seventh identified in Modern Baptist 

History. 

Section I. — Baptist peculiarity seventh — the 

TRUE CHURCH PERSECUTED — TESTED BY THE 
BIBLE. 

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church, was 
sorely persecuted. His enemies sent men to try to en- 
tangle him in his teaching ; they assailed his character with 
foul slanders ; and at last they put him to the shameful 
death of the cross. The Savior was sorely persecuted and 
maltreated while on earth, and he has made no promise 
that his disciples should fare better than himself in this 
respect ; but, on the contrary, they are promised persecu- 
tions as a part of their inheritance. Jesus said to Peter : 

Mark 10 : 29, 30. " Yerlly I Say Unt ° J ° U > TherG ™ U ° maR 
that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, 

or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my 
sake, and the GospePs, but he shall receive an hundred- 
fold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and 
mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and 
in the world to come eternal life." How emphatic, every 
one "shall receive" "persecutions" as a part of his present 
inheritance. Again : Jesus taught that we must not expect 



Shown from the (Bible, 267 

exemption from persecution, when he said : " It is enough 
for the disciple that he be as his master, and B _. ^ M 
the servant as his lord : if they have called 
the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall 
they call them of his household ? " Some Christians sup- 
pose that they are to live in peace and quiet on earth ; but 

Jesus said: " Think not that I am come __ ^ Am .• 

, . _ . . Matt. 10: 34-36. 

to send peace on earth : 1 came not to send 

peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at vari- 
ance against his father, and the daughter against her 
mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in- 
law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own house- 
hold." The Savior does not teach that the faithful preach- 
ing of the Gospel will itself produce war; but he would 
inform us that the wickedness of the human family is so 
great that they will rise in rebellion against the Gospel 
faithfully preached, and persecute those who forsake all 
for the kingdom of God, even to the rending asunder 

the dearest ties on earth. Jesus said : " I T 7 rt 

Luke 12 : 49. 
am come to send fire on the earth, and what 

will I, if it be already kindled?" In this the Savior 

taught that the persecutions against himself were but the 

kindling of a fire on earth which would rend families and 

friends asunder. We are further informed that this fire 

of persecution will burn so fiercely that near relatives will 

deliver each other to death ; for Jesus says : " Behold, I 

send you forth as sheep in the midst of „ ^ '„« 
, J , , n . Matt. 10 : 16-22. 

wolves : be ye therefore wise as serpents, 

and harmless as doves. But beware of men ; for they will 
deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you 
in their synagogues ; and ye shall be brought before gov- 
ernors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them 



The True Church (Persecuted. 



and the Gentiles. But when they deliver you up, take no 
thought how or what ye shall speak ; for it shall be given 
you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not 
ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speak- 
eth in you. And the brother shall deliver up the brother 
to death, and the father the child : and the children shall 
rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to 
death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's 
sake : but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." 
Daniel the prophet foresaw the fearful persecutions 
waged against the saints of God by the Papal horn ; he 
said : " I beheld, and the same horn made 
war with the saints, and prevailed against 
them." The crucifixion of Jesus was the result of re- 
ligious hate manifesting itself in a fiendish persecution 
which even followed his dead body into the tomb. Stephen 
fell a martyr by the hand of relentless persecution, under 
the shower of stones. And the apostles, all .except John, 
died a violent death, because of their faithful testimony 
for the truth. * 

But we are not to become discouraged under persecution, 
as if some strange thing had happened ; for all these afflic- 
tions, which are but for a moment, " work- 
eth for us a far more exceeding and eter- 
nal weight of glory." Peter says : " Beloved, think it not 

strange concerning: the fiery trial which is 
1 Peter 4: 12,13. L 6 ,, * J . ... 

to try you, as though some strange thing 

happened unto you : But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are par- 
takers of Christ's sufferings ; that, when his glory shall 
be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy." 
. Jesus consoled the disciples as follows: 
Matt. 5: 10-12. „ Blesged are thej whicll are persecuted for 



Shown from the (Bible. 269 

righteousness' sake : for their's is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute 
you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, 
for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad : for great 
is your reward in heaven : for so persecuted they the 
prophets which were before you." We should esteem it a 
great honor to be permitted to partake of the sufferings of 
Jesus Christ by being persecuted. Paul rejoiced in trib- 
ulations and sufferings for the cause of his Master; he 
sums up his afflictions as follows : " Are they ministers of 

Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more; 

7 , , , . . , 2 Cot. ll : 23—28. 

in labors more abundant, in stripes above 

measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. Of the 
Jews five times received I forty stripes save one. Thrice 
was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice I suf- 
fered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the 
deep; in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils 
of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by 
the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilder- 
ness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren ; 
in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hun- 
ger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. 
Beside those things that are without, that which cometh 
upon me daily, the care of all the churches." 

Some professed Christians are popular with the world ; 
but to them the Savior says : "Wo unto you, when all 
men shall speak well of you ! for so did their 
fathers to the false prophets." And to the 
same effect the apostle James testifies, as follows : " Know 
ye not that the friendship of the world is 
enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, 
will be a friend of the world, is the enemy of God." Thus 



270 The True Church (Persecuted. 

we discover that those ministers and members, professed 
Christians, who enjoy the popular favor or friendship of 
the world, are the enemies of God ; and consequently they 
are also the enemies of all the faithful Christians who bear 
witness against the rulers of the darkness of this world 
and spiritual wickedness in high places. And it is also true, 
that these " Christians," enemies of God, who have trans- 
formed themselves into ministers of Christ, are the leaders 
in persecuting those who are faithful to Christ. Paul 
said to Timothy : " Yea, and all that will 
live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer perse- 
cution." There is no escape; all the truly godly shall 
suffer persecution; and when they reach heaven it will be 
said of them: " These are they which came 
out of great tribulation, and have washed 
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the 
Lamb." And of these bitter persecutions or tribulations, 
the Savior further said: "Now the brother 
' shall betray the brother to death, and the 
father the son ; and children shall rise up against their 
parents, and shall cause them to be put to death. And ye 
shall be hated of all men for my name's sake ; but he that 
shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Luke 
reports the words of Jesus on this point thus : " But be- 

r- -, ^ . fore all these, they shall lay their hands on 
Luke 21: 12. , ' A J , ,. . 

you, and persecute you, delivering you up to 

the synagogues, and into prisons, being brought before 
kings and rulers for my name's sake." In the fulfillment 
of this prediction the apostle Paul was sorely persecuted. 
Tertullus, the orator employed by the high priest and 
elders to prosecute Paul before Felix, the governor, ac- 
cused him as follows : " For we have found this man a pes- 



(Baptists (Persecuted. SSI 

tilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among 
all the Jews throughout the world, and a 
ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes." Again, the 
apostle speaks of the persecutions and sufferings of the 
apostolic ministry in the following : u Even unto this pres- 
ent hour we both hunger, and thirst, and 
are naked, and are buffeted, and have no 
certain dwelling-place ; and labor, working with our own 
hands: being reviled, w T e bless; being persecuted, we 
suffer it ; being defamed, we entreat : we are made as the 
filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto 
this day." It can nowhere be found that true Christians 
will be popular with the world. No point can be more 
fully sustained by the Scriptures than that the true church 
or kingdom of Jusus Christ was peculiarly persecuted, and 
every-where spoken against in the apostolic age. This was 
acknowledged by the Jews at Rome, in the following: 

" But we desire to hear of thee what thou , rtrt ^ 
, . -, n • Acts 28 : 22. 

thmkest: tor as concerning this sect, w r e 

know that every-where it is spoken against." 



Section II. — The bible chaeacteeistic of the 

TEUE CHUECHES OF CHEIST BEING PECULIAELY 
PEESECUTED, IDENTIEIED IN THE MODEEN HISTOEY 
OF BAPTISTS. 

While other denominations dispute among themselves, 
they unite in opposing the Baptists. The Baptists are the 
objects of derision and persecution among both Catholics 
and Protestants. They are accounted as the common 
enemy of sects, creeds and formularies of the whole Cath- 
olic and Protestant world. They are also looked upon 



272 The True Church (Persecuted. 

with suspicion and contempt by the kings and tyrants of 
earth as the enemies of all governments. Of this opposi- 
tion to Baptists, Mosheim, the historian, says: " There 
were certain sects and doctors against 
i05 ' ' w 07 ^ J whom the zeal, vigilance and severity of 
Catholics, Lutherans, and Calvinists, were 
united, and in opposing whose settlement and progress these 
three communions, forgetting their dissentions, joined their 
most vigorous counsels and endeavors. The objects of 
their common aversion were the Anabaptists, and those 
who denied the divinity of Christ and a trinity of persons 
in the godhead." Catholics and Protestants still agree in 
that opposition to Baptists. 

These persecutions against Baptists have not been con- 
fined to the Old World ; but the relentless hand of violence 
has followed them to America; and on this continent 
Baptists have been banished, fined, imprisoned, and pub- 
licly whipped, on the account of their principles. A law 
was passed in the colony of Massachusetts in 1644, for the 
banishment of Baptists for the rejection of infant bap- 
tism. "And in 1644, a poor man, by the 
eigious mom., name f Painter, became a Baptist, and 
was complained of to the court for re- 
fusing to have his child baptized. The court, with judi- 
cial dignity, interposed their authority in favor of the 
child. And because the poor man gave it as his opinion 
that infant baptism was an anti-christian ordinance, 'he 
was/ says Backus, 'tied up and whipped/ " And in the 
year 1651, three Baptist ministers, Dr. John Clarke, Obe- 
diah Holmes, and John Crandal, were arrested on Lord's 
Day, July 19th, while Clarke was preaching in a private 
house, and the next day were committed to prison in Boston. 



Modern (Baptists (Persecuted. 273 

"And on July 31st they were tried before 
the Court of Assistants, bv whom Clarke ^J 8 " zs ' y 
was fined twenty pounds ; Holmes, thirty, 
and John Crandal, five : or each to be well whipped." On 
the payment of their fines, Clarke and Crandal were re- 
leased, but Holmes was retained in prison until Septem- 
ber, when he was publicly whipped most cruelly upon his 
bare back ; for the executioner, " striking 
with all his strength, spitting in his hand " ' *' 

three times, with a three-corded w T hip, 
giving me therewith thirty strokes," is the testimony of 
Holmes himself. Two men were cast into prison for 
showing sympathy to Holmes by shaking hands with 
him when he was untied from the whipping-post. 

In order to show the various inconveniences and trou- 
bles to which the Baptists were subjected, in Massachu- 
setts, under the rule of the Puritan Presbyterians, we 
here insert a long letter, addressed to the Philadelphia 
Association, in the year 1770. It is as follows : 

"'The laws of this province never were intended to 
exempt the Baptists from paying toward 
building and repairing Presbyterian meet- * " f^-in SS °'' 
ing houses, and making up Presbyterian 
ministers' salaries; for, besides other insufficiencies, they 
are all limited both as to extent and duration. The first 
law extended only five miles round each Baptist meeting- 
house; those without this circle had no relief, neither hud 
they within : for, though it exempted their polls, it left 
their estates to the mercy of harpies, and their estates 
went to wreck. The Baptists sought a better law, and 
with great difficulty and waste of time and money, ob- 
tained it; but this was not universal. It extended not 



274 The True Church (Persecuted. 

to any parish until a Presbyterian meeting-house should 
be built, and a Presbyterian minister settle there; in 
consequence of which the Baptists have never been freed 
from the first and great expenses of their parishes — ex- 
penses equal to the current expenses of ten or twelve 
years. This is the present case of the people of Ashfield, 
which is a Baptist settlement. There were but five fam- 
ilies of other denominations in the place when the Baptist 
church was constituted ; but those five, and a few more, 
have lately built a Presbyterian meeting-house there, and 
settled an orthodox minister, as they call him ; which last 
cost them £200. To pay for both, they laid a tax on the 
land; and, as the Baptists are the most numerous, the 
greatest part fell to their share. The Presbyterians, in 
April last, demanded the money. The Baptists pleaded 
poverty, alleging that they had been twice driven from 
their plantations by the Indians' last war; that they were 
but new settlers, and had cleared out a few spots of land, 
and had not been able to build commodious dwelling- 
houses. Their tyrants would not hear. Then the Bap- 
tists pleaded the ingratitude of such conduct ; for they 
had built a fort there at their own expense, and had main- 
tained it for two years, and so had protected the interior 
Presbyterians, as well as their neighbors, who now rose 
up against them ; that the Baptists to the westward had 
raised money to relieve Presbyterians who had, like them, 
suffered by the Indians ; and that it was cruel to take 
from them what the Indians had left! But nothing 
touched the hearts of these cruel people. Then the Bap- 
tists urged the law of the province; but were soon told 
that that law extended to no new parish till the meeting- 
house and minister were paid for. Then the Baptists 



Modern (Baptists (Persecuted. 275 

petitioned the general court. Proceedings were stopped 
till further orders, and the poor people went home rejoic- 
ing, thinking their property safe ; but they had not all got 
home before said order came ; and it was an order for the 
Presbyterians to proceed. Accordingly, in the month of 
April, they fell foul on their plantations; and not on 
skirts and corners, but on the cleared and improved spots; 
and so have mangled their estates and left them hardly 
any but a wilderness. They sold the house and garden 
of one man, and the young orchards, meadows, and corn- 
fields of others ; nay, they sold their dead, for they sold 
their graveyards. The orthodox minister was one of the 
purchasers. These spots amounted to three hundred and 
ninety-five acres, and have since been valued at £363 8s., 
but were sold for £35 10s. This was the first payment. 
Two more are coming, which will not leave them an inch 
of land at this rate. The Baptists waited on the assem- 
bly five times this year for relief, but were not heard, 
under pretense they did no business ; but their enemies 
were heard, and had their business done. At last the 
Baptists got together about a score of the members at Cam- 
bridge, and made their complaints known ; but, in general, 
they were treated very superciliously. One of them spoke 
to this effect: 'The general assembly have a right to do 
tvhat they did, and if you don't like it, you may quit the 
place!' But, alas, they must leave their all behind! 
These Presbyterians are not only supercilious in power, 
but mean and cruel in mastery. When they came to- 
gether to mangle the estates of the Baptists, they diverted 
themselves with the tears and lamentations of the op- 
pressed. One of them, whose name is Wells, stood up to 
preach a mock sermon on the occasion; and among other 



276 The True Church (Persecuted. 

things, used words to this effect : ' Tlie Baptists, for re- 
fusing to pay an orthodox minister, shall be cut in pound 
pieces, and boiled for their fat to grease the devil's car- 
riage, etc J " 

There can be no more reliable historical document than 
that published by an association of Baptists. This letter 
shows that the Baptists of Ashfield, Massachusetts, had their 
property sold by the Puritan Presbyterians, to pay for the 
building of the Presbyterian meeting-house and the salary 
of the Presbyterian minister ; and when driven out of their 
possessions into the wilderness, a blasphemous mock-sermon 
was preached to aggravate their distress. But the Baptists 
were not only persecuted in Massachusetts with fines and 
imprisonments ; they also suffered the same in Virginia and 

other States. As many as " thirty Baptist 
Backup Ch. His., . . „ . . -, . TT . . . 

™ ministers were imprisoned in Virginia 

"for preaching the Gospel to precious 

souls ;" and besides the imprisonment, they suffered nearly 

all kinds of abuse and insults from their enemies. Among 

these, we mention the names of James Ireland and John 

Weatherford. Ireland was seized by the throat, by the 

officers of the Established Church, while engaged in prayer 

in the congregation ; and they immediately hurried him 

away to jail in Culpepper. "He was ac- 

Virqinia Baptist . j , . • n , i i n i . 

* . * ' compamed to prison amid the abuses 01 his 

persecutors ; and while incarcerated in his 

cell, not only suffered by the extreme inclemency of the 

weather, but by the personal maltreatment of his foes. 

They attempted to blow him up with gunpowder, but the 

quantity obtained was only sufficient to force up some of 

the flooring of his prison. " They attempted to destroy his 

life by suffocation, from burning brimstone, but failed. 



Modern Baptists (Persecuted. 277 

They also formed a plot to poison him, which was unsuc- 
cessful. And the only charge laid against this devoted 
man of God was that of " preaching the Gospel of the Son 
of God/' During his imprisonment, Elder Ireland en- 
joyed so much of the Divine presence that he was accus- 
tomed to call his prison " my palace in Culpepper." 

Elder John Weatherford w r as very successful in his min- 
istry. His success roused the resentment of his Episcopal 
enemies, and he was soon thrown into prison, where he 
remained five months. But "his courage 
forsook him not. The love of Christ con- ^f **£* 
strained him. He preached at the door 
of the prison as long as .allowed the privilege; when re- 
fused that, he preached through the grates of the window. 
But such determined opposition did he meet, that an effort 
was made by his enemies to put a stop to that also. For 
this purpose, they built an outer wall above the grate. 
But Weatherford devised means to overcome the obstacle. 
A handkerchief, by the congregation, w T as to be raised 
on a pole above the wall, as a signal that the people were 
ready to hear. His voice being very strong, he could 
throw it beyond these impediments, and convey the words 
of life and salvation to the listening crowed. Before his 
release, some souls were blessed, and he was ow r ned as the 
honored instrument of their conversion." Ministers were 
sent for, w r ho baptized the converts in the night that w 7 ere 
thus converted under the preaching of this prisoner of the 
Lord Jesus. 

The following account is given by Joseph Belcher, of 
an instance of the persecutions of a Baptist minister by 
the name of Shubael Dimock, in Connecticut : " Just as 
Shubael closed his sermon at a school-house in Mansfield, 



278 The True Church (Persecuted. 

a sheriff arrested him, upon a loarrant to commit him to 

Windham jail. His offense was as follows: 'The said 

Shubael Dimoek has been convicted of 
Religions Denom., ^ . . -, , i • tit n u 

..-« ' preaching in a school-house m Mansneld, 

and under an oak tree in Ashford/ He 
was required to walk before the officer to prison. But he 
replied, 'I have no call there; neither can I voluntarily 
go, since I have said, God willing, I will preach this 
evening in Ashford under the oak tree/ The officer urged 
that it was his duty to commit him to jail. i Well, then/ 
said the prisoner, 'If you have a duty to perform, you 
must attend to it ; I shall not resist/ He was at length 
set upon a horse and directed to guide it to Windham. 
Even this he refused to do, and the sheriff was compelled 
to mount the horse behind, and with his arms around him 
to guide the horse to the prison. Here he lay confined 
nine months, still proclaiming the truth as he had oppor- 
tunity, for he declared that it was impossible to prevent his 
preaching unless they cut out his tongue/' Of such im- 
prisonments and persecutions, " Many instances might be 

given : such as that on June 4, 1768, John 

Religious Denom.. ^ T r n T ^ . T ^i . u -, 

* Walker, .Lewis Craig, James Childs, and 

others were dragged before the magistrates 
in Spottsylvania county, and bound over for trial. Three 
days after, they were indicted as i disturbers of the peace/ 
The prosecuting attorney made this formidable charge: 
i May it please your worships, these men are great disturb- 
ers of the peace; they can. not meet a man in the road 
but they must ram a text of Scripture down his throat/ n 
It was these persecutions against the Baptists of Virginia 
which aroused the sympathies of the renowned Patrick 
Henry, and caused him to volunteer his services in the 



Modern (Baptists (Persecuted. 279 

defense of the poor ministers who were dragged before the 
court as criminals " for preaching the Gospel of the Son 
of God." 

The resistless eloquence of Mr. Henry, poured forth in 
the defense of three Baptist ministers, will ever be remem- 
bered by the friends of American liberty. From the 
first settlement of the Baptists in America down to the 
achievement of American independence, they were " in- 
sulted, fined, imprisoned, and despised." Nor was it until 
compelled by law, that the enemies of the Baptists ceased to 
lay violent hands on them on account of their principles. 
We are glad to know that there are numbers of pious per- 
sons in the various communions who did not then, nor would 
they now, indorse these persecuting measures against the 
Baptists. But circumstances indicate that many sectarian 
leaders would now lay violent hands on faithful Baptist 
ministers as in former times. This persecuting spirit is 
developed from day to day in the sectarian papers, pam- 
phlets and books that are scattered broadcast over the land. 
The following is found in the Banner of Peace, of No- 
vember 26, 1868, a Cumberland Presbyterian paper: "I 
think the Baptist Church is a clear despotism, if there is 
one on earth; and they ought to cover their lips and bury 
their faces in everlasting shame, and cease to abuse the 
papacy of Borne, and other sects, as they call them." 
Elder N. H. Lee, of the Methodists, says : " It is not the 
Baptist people, as such, that I oppose, but it is the false 
principles and bigotry of her priesthood." No doubt, such 
Baptist lovers as Elder Lee, and the Banner of Peace {?), 
if they had the power, would attempt to force Baptists, not 
only into " everlasting shame," but to prison and death, 
on the account of their u false principles and bigotry," as 



280 The True Church (Persecuted. 

their Pedobaptist ancestors, the Catholics, have always 
done when in power. 

The country is fully supplied with books and tracts 
pouring their wrath, in denunciations, upon the Baptists 
on the account of their doctrine. Baptist views and his- 
tory are continually misrepresented and perverted. Some 
who profess great friendship for Baptists, try to associate 
their history with the mad proceedings of Minister, or 
with the nude baptisms of the Catholics. And he who 
now dares to faithfully advocate Baptist principles, in con- 
trast with the ecclesiastical inventions of modern times, is 
sure to be followed by a hungry school of ecclesiastical 
sharks, ready to devour his good name, and stamp, if pos- 
sible, "everlasting shame " and infamy on his character. 
But I am happy to know that there are vast numbers of 
pious persons in the various sects who would not harm 
any one on the account of their principles. We here in- 
troduce the speech of Patrick Henry in defense of three 
Baptist preachers who were on trial .for preaching. The 
following quotation is from the Religious Denominations, 
by Mr. Belcher : " Three Baptist preachers were brought 
to trial for preaching. The indictment brought against 

them was 'For preaching the Gospel of 
Religious Denom., ^ ^ - ^ , contrary to the statute in 
pp. 161-165. J / \ 

that case provided, and therefore, disturb- 
ers of the peace. The clerk was reading the indictment 
in a slow and formal manner, and he pronounced the crime 
with emphasis, 'For preaching the Gospel of the Son of 
God/ when a plain-dressed man dismounted his horse, 
entered the court-house, and took his seat within the bar. 
He was known to the court and lawyers, but a stranger to 
the mass of spectators who had gathered on the occasion. 



Modern (Baptists (Persecuted. 281 

This was Patrick Henry, who, on hearing of this prose- 
cution, had rode some fifty or sixty miles, from his resi- 
dence in Hanover county, to volunteer his services in the 
defense of the prisoners. He listened to the further read- 
ing of the indictment with marked attention, the first sen- 
tence of which that had caught his ear, was, ' For preach- 
ing the Gospel of the Son of God/ When the indict- 
ment had been read, and the prosecuting attorney had sub- 
mitted a few remarks, Henry arose, stretched out his hand 
and received the paper, and then addressed the court : 

'May it please your worships: I think I heard read 
by the prosecutor as I entered this house, the paper I now 
hold in my hand. If I have rightly understood, the king's 
attorney of this colony has framed an indictment for the 
purpose of arraigning and punishment by imprisonment, 
three inoffensive persons before the bar of this court, for a 
crime of great magnitude — as disturbers of the peace. 
May it please the court, what did I hear read? Did I 
hear it distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own ? Did I 
hear an expression, as if a crime, that these men, whom 
your worships are about to try for a misdemeanor, are 
charged with — what ! ' and continuing in a low, solemn, 
heavy tone : c For preaching the Gospel of the Son of 
God ! ' Pausing, amidst the most profound silence and 
breathless astonishment of his hearers, he slowly waved 
the paper three times around his head, then, lifting up his 
hands and eyes to heaven, with extraordinary and im- 
pressive energy, he exclaimed, i Great God ! y The ex- 
clamation — the action — the burst of feeling from the audi- 
ence were all overpowering. Mr. Henry resumed : 

' May it please your worships : In a day like this, 
when truth is about to burst her fetters ; when mankind 



282 The True Church Persecuted. 

are about to be raised to claim their natural and inaliena- 
ble rights ; when the yoke of oppression which has reached 
the wilderness of America, and the unnatural alliance of 
ecclesiastical and civil power is about to be dissevered, at 
such a period, when liberty — liberty of conscience — is 
about to awake from her slumberings and inquire into the 
reason of such charges as I find exhibited here to-day in 
this indictment ! ; Another fearful pause, while the 
speaker alternately cast his sharp, piercing eyes on the 
court and the prisoners, and resumed : 6 If I am not de- 
ceived, according to the contents of the paj>er I now hold 
in my hand, these men are accused of i preaching the Gos- 
pel of the Son of God/ — Great God ! ' Another long 
pause, during which he again waved the indictment around 
his head, while a deeper impression was made on the 
auditory. Resuming his speech : ( May it please your 
worships ; there are periods in the history of man, when 
corruption and depravity have so long debased the human 
character that man sinks under the weight of the oppress- 
or's hand and becomes his servile — his abject slave ; he 
licks the hand that smites him ; he bows in passive obedi- 
ence to the mandates of the despot, and in this state of 
servility he receives his fetters of perpetual bondage. But, 
may it please your worships, such a day has passed away ! 
From the period when our fathers left the land of their 
nativity for settlement in these American wilds — for Lib- 
erty — for civil and religious liberty — for liberty of con- 
science — to worship their Creator according to their con- 
ceptions of Heaven's revealed will, — from the moment 
they placed their feet on the American continent, and in 
the deeply imbedded forests sought an asylum from per- 
secution and tyranny — from that moment despotism was 



Modern (Baptists (Persecuted. 283 

crushed ; her fetters of darkness were broken, and Heaven 
decreed that man should be free — free to worship God ac- 
cording to the Bible. Were it not for this, in vain have 
been the efforts and sacrifices of the colonists; in vain 
were all their sufferings and bloodshed to subjugate this 
new world, if we, their offspring, must still be oppressed 
and persecuted. But, may it please your worships, permit 
me to inquire once more : For what are these men about 
to be fried ? This paper says, l for preaching the Gospel 
of the Son of God/ Great God ! For preaching the 
Savior to Adam's fallen race/ 

After another pause, in tones of thunder he inquired : 
' What law have they violated ? ' Then, for the 
third time, in a slow, dignified manner, he lifted his eyes 
to heaven, and waved the indictment around his head. 
The court and the audience were now wrought up to the 
most intense pitch of excitement. The face of the pros- 
ecuting attorney was pale and ghastly, and he appeared 
unconscious that his whole frame was agitated with alarm ; 
and the judge, in a tremulous voice, put an end to the 
scene, now becoming extremely painful, by the authorita- 
tive command : 'Sheriff, discharge those men!'" 

We have not mentioned a tithe of the persecutions 
waged against modern Baptists. I must express the de- 
liberate opinion, that if the men who denounce and mis- 
represent us to the extent of their ability, only had the 
power, they would apply fines and imprisonments as did 
the Episcopalians in the time of Patrick Henry. 

Other authorities might be introduced to exhibit the 
bitterness of the opposition waged against Baptists from 
the modern pulpit and press. We hav6 found that the 
Bible characteristic that the kingdom of Jesus Christ is 



284 The True Church Persecuted. 

peculiarly persecuted and every-where spoken against, is 
fully identified in the modern history of the Baptists. 
They have been persecuted as no others have been, with 
peculiar hate and unrelenting bitterness. We now come 
to the close of the investigation, which settles, beyond suc- 
cessful contradiction, the fact that the seven leading Bap- 
tist peculiarities are in reality the Bible peculiarities pos- 
sessed by the apostolic churches. We find the same char- 
acteristic features at both ends of the chain of church suc- 
cession. And as these leading marks are proved to be 
essential features of the kingdom of Jesus Christ in its 
divine organization, and the prophetic word of God is 
pledged for the perpetuity of this church or kingdom, 
therefore we may expect to find these marks of identity 
possessed by the same kingdom in every age down to the 
present time. Though all these marks may not be visible 
at the same time to the eye of the historian, yet a suffi- 
cient number of them may be discovered to indicate the 
line of succession of that church against which the gates 
of hell were never to prevail. We will proceed in the 
next chapter with these seven Baptist marks, verified by 
the Scriptures, as a kind of standard, to measure the dif- 
ferent periods on the line of succession, to see if these Bap- 
tist features have identified the church from the apostolic 
age down to the present. 



(Baptist Succession. 285 



CHAPTER XV. 

PRIMITIVE CHURCHES— FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT 
OF THE CHURCH TO THE NOVATIAN RUPTURE- 
A PERIOD OF ABOUT TWO HUNDRED AXD TWENTY 
YEARS. 

1. Peculiarities applied to the Primitive Churches. 

2. Bishop axd Elder the same Office. 

3. Errors which originated in this Period. 

Section I. — Peculiarities applied to the primi- 
tive churches. 

In the application of the Baptist peculiar marks to this 
period, very little more remains to be done, because it has 
already been fully established that these Baptist marks 
are really the marks of the apostolic churches. There has 
arisen no dispute among historians that the main body of 
Christian churches bore the apostolic character during the 
period we now have under consideration. It may, there- 
fore, be considered as settled, that the primitive churches, 
down to the middle of the third century, in the main, pos- 
sessed the Bible peculiarities ; and, as these Bible peculiari- 
ties are also the Baptist peculiarities, therefore these prim- 
itive churches possessed the Baptist peculiarities. As re- 
gards peculiarity first, which recognizes Jesus Christ as 
the Head and Founder of his church, up to this time 
none had dared to deny the supremacy of Jesus Christ as 
the Founder and Head of his own church. In speaking 
of Jesus Christ as the Founder and Head of the model 
church at Jerusalem, Mr. Jones, the historian, says : " If 



286 (Primitive Churches, 

this be a just representation of the church or kingdom of 

Christ as it appeared in its establishment, 

Jones' Ch. His., ... ./» . ,r , \ , • , 

4 ^ ' it is manliest, that whenever we trace it 

in subsequent periods, we must find some- 
thing that resembles it in its leading features. We shall 
discern a people holding the same views of the character 
and work of the Savior, owning subjection to him as the 
king whom God hath set upon his holy hill of Zion, evinc- 
ing their allegiance to him by an implicit obedience to his 
laws, institutions, and ordinances, and discarding the doc- 
trines and commandments of men. As the church at Jeru- 
salem was the first Christian church established by the 
ministry of the apostles, so it was designed to serve as a 
pattern, in its faith and order, to all succeeding churches 
to the end of the world." 

It is admitted, that the churches of these early times 
were all modeled after the Jerusalem pattern; and, of 
course, they acknowledge Jesus as their Founder and 
Head, because the Jerusalem church — the pattern — had 
the Savior as its Founder and King. That these early 
churches had no human head, is seen in the following, 
from Mosheim, the historian : " The people were, un- 
doubtedly, the first in authority ; for the 
Mos^Ch. History, apostleg showed , by their own example, 

that nothing of moment was to be carried 
on or determined without the consent of the assembly ; 
and such a method of proceeding was both prudent and 
necessary in those critical times." 

This point was settled in the Bible investigation, which 
proved that the Baptist doctrine, which recognizes Jesus 
as the Founder and Head of his church, is also the teach- 
ing of the Word of God. We may conclude, therefore, 



(Burial in (Baptism-. 287 



that the churches of this primitive period retained the 
Bible teaching, that Jesus Christ is the only Founder and 
Head of his church. 

As regards the second and third peculiarities, which ac- 
knowledge the Scriptures as the rule of faith and practice 
and the divine order of the commandments, history af- 
fords no evidence that any other standard of faith except 
the Scriptures had been adopted in this period ; and, con- 
sequently, the order of the commandments remained un- 
changed, and therefore these early churches bore the sec- 
ond and third peculiarities of the Baptists as laid down 
in our catalogue. During this period the Christians had 
no human creeds or confessions of faith prepared by eccle- 
siastical reformers to govern the churches. Their appeal 
was to the laws of Jesus Christ as given by the apostles 
in all matters of religion. 

It is also easily established that these early churches 
bore the peculiarity which requires the burial in baptism 
of those who are dead to sin. Mosheim says of this period : 
" The sacrament of baptism was administered in this cen- 
tury (the first) without the public assem- 
blies, in places appointed and prepared for lr °*' ' ' ls ory ' 
that purpose, and was performed by an 
immersion of the whole body in the baptismal font." 

There was no sprinkling or infant baptism known in 
the first century. The whole body was buried or im- 
mersed in the baptismal font. And, of the second cen 
tury, the same historian testifies as follows : " The persons 
that were to be baptized, after they had re- 
peated the creed, confessed and renounced Mos 'S !h ' mstor ^ 
their sins, and particularly the devil and 
his pompous allurements; were immersed under water, 



288 (Primitive Churches. 

and received into Christ's kingdom by a solemn invoca- 
tion of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the 
express command of our blessed Lord." 

It was not until about the commencement of the third 
century that the error of baptismal salvation began to be 
introduced. On this point George W addington, the learned 
Episcopal historian, remarks : " The original simplicity 

of the office of baptism had already un- 

His. of the Church, -i ,. r™ i i 

07 ' dergone some corruption, I he symbol 

had been gradually exalted at the expense 
of the thing signified, and the spirit of the ceremony was 
beginning to be lost in its form. Hence a belief was gain- 
ing ground among the converts, and was inculcated among 
the heathen, that the act of baptism gave remission of all 
sins committed previously to it." It was thus in the early 
part of the third century that the doctrine of baptismal 
salvation gained ground, especially in Africa. Neander, 
the celebrated historian, sustains this view in the follow- 
ing language: "But while, on the one 
is. tree en } ian( j ; ^ e doctrine of the corruption and 

TICS y p. xVa. •i.i.Tii i 

guilt inherited by human nature, as the 
consequence of the first transgression, was reduced into a 
more systematic and distinct form, which was particu- 
larly the case in the North African Church (See below, 
in the history of the doctrines of Christianity), on the 
other hand, from want of proper distinction between the 
external and internal things of baptism (the baptism of 
water, and the baptism of the Spirit), the idea was forever 
gaining ground, and becoming more firmly fixed, that 
without outward baptism no one could be freed from that 
inherited guilt, saved from the eternal punishment which 
threatened him, or brought to eternal happiness; and while 



' (Burial of the (bead to Sin. 289 

the idea of the magical effects of the sacrament was con- 
stantly obtaining more and more sway, the theory of the 
unconditional necessity of infant baptism developed itself 
from that idea." Here Neander, the Lutheran historian, 
testifies that baptismal salvation gained ground in the early 
part of the third century ; and that infant baptism was 
developed from it ; therefore, it was the error of baptismal 
salvation which brought forth infant baptism. Now, as 
we have the testimony of Neander that neither baptismal 
salvation nor infant baptism prevailed in the primitive 
churches — and we have already seen that they buried their 
converts in baptism — therefore, peculiarity fourth, the 
burial in baptism of those who are dead to, or freed from, 
sin, is sustained in the practice of those primitive churches. 
On the question of the action of baptism, Neander affirms 

that: "Baptism was originally adrainis- 

-i -i . . i n , -I His. Three Centu- 

tered by immersion, and many 01 the com- . 7 

parisons of St. Paul allude to this form of 
its administration : the immersion is a symbol of death, 
of being buried with Christ; the coming forth from the 
water is a symbol of a resurrection with Christ : and both 
taken together, represent the second birth, the death of the 
old man and a resurrection to a new life." The intro- 
duction of affusion for baptism only began to be prac- 
ticed near the close of this period in some sections, in the 
case of clinics — namely, sick persons. All candid histori- 
ans agree that believer's immersion was the prevailing 
practice of the primitive churches; and, as will be seen 
hereafter, the same prevailed almost universally for 1,300 
years. The point is clearly made out, that the primitive 
churches possessed the leading characteristic peculiarity 
of the burial in baptism of professed believers — the regen- 



290 (Primitive Churches. 

erate. It is also clearly established that the primitive 
churches retained peculiarity fifth, which recognizes equal 
rights in the execution of the laws of the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ. 

Mr. Waddington says: "It is also true that in the ear- 
liest government of the first Christian 

^'oa o! WC ' society, that of Jerusalem, not the elders 
pp. 20, 21. J ' 7 

only, but the whole church were associ- 
ated with the apostles : and it is even certain that the terms 
bishop and elder, or presbyter, were, in the first instance, 
and for a short period, sometimes used synonymously, and 
indiscriminately applied to the same order in the ministry." 
Yes: it is true that in the earliest government of the 
Christian churches, the whole church were associated 
together. This description can now apply to no denomi- 
nation except the Baptists. All other denominations make 
various distinctions in point of privilege among their 
members, and are not associated in church discipline, or 
the execution of the laws of Jesus Christ. The same his- 
torian remarks, that : " In this election 
His. of the Church. , v \ r\ ^ i j i i 

23 (pi pastors) the people had an equal share 

with the presbyters and inferior clergy, 
without exception or distinction ; and it is clear that their 
right in this matter was not barely testimonial, but judi- 
cial and elective. This appointment was final, requiring 
no confirmation from the civil power or any superior pre- 
late ; and thus, in the management of its internal affairs, 
every church was essentially independent of every other." 
The same is confirmed by the learned Mosheim, who says : 

"It was, therefore, the assembly of the 
as. . isoiy, p e0 pi e w ;ni c h chose rulers and teachers, or 

received them by free and authoritative 



Equality in (Primitive Churches. 291 

consent when recommended by others. The same people 
rejected or confirmed, by their suffrages, the laws that 
were proposed by their rulers to the assembly ; excommu- 
nicated profligate and unworthy members of the church ; 
restored the penitent to their forfeited privileges; passed 
judgment upon the different subjects of controversy and 
dissention that arose in their community; examined and 
decided the disputes which happened between the elders 
and deacons; and, in a word, exercised all that authority 
which belongs to such as are invested with sovereign 
power." 

This description of the churches of this early period will 
apply to no denomination on earth, known to me, except 

the Baptists. Again, Mosheim says : " A 

i • i r 11' xi it j, i Mos. Ch. History. 

bishop [or pastor,] during the nrst and 99 , *' 

second century, w^as a person who had the 
care of one Christian assembly, which, at that time was, 
generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a 
private house. In this assembly he acted, not so much 
with the authority of a master, as with the zeal and dili- 
gence of a faithful servant." It can be amply sustained, 
from a multitude of historians of different parties, that 
the primitive churches, next to the apostolic age, main- 
tained the equality, in point of privilege, of all the mem- 
bers of the churches, in the execution of church discipline, 
which characterized the apostolic churches, and which 
now distinguish the Baptists from all other denominations 
of Christendom. 

Some persons seem to regard the form of church gov- 
ernment a very trivial affair, and conclude that it matters 
very little whether the church government is a monarchy, 
aristocracy, or a democracy ; and that a privileged class of 



292 (Primitive Churches. 

men have a perfect right to make, change or abolish church 
laws, rites and ceremonies, at pleasure. Such persons deny 
that Jesus Christ made any laws whatever for the govern- 
ment of his own kingdom ! These have partaken of the 
blasphemy of the little horn, of whom it was said : "And 
7 . 9 k l ie shall speak great words against the Most 
High, and shall wear out the saints of the 
Most High, and think to change times and laws." 

As all the false churches were set up and introduced by 
preachers, they have not failed to make ample provision 
for their own elevation and authority in those organiza- 
tions ; but in the kingdom of Christ, we find the people 
equal in authority in all matters of discipline, even to the 
trial of preachers themselves. In regard to this equality 
in the early churches, Mr. Robinson, the historian, says : 

" In the first period, which includes three 
Bob.'s Eccl. Res.. , . ^i ... . , i 

.j^q centuries, Christians were united as just 

now mentioned. It was an union or com- 
pact, tacit or expressed, and the discipline was a confeder- 
ate equality. Nobody was compelled to join a church ; 
each was admitted singly, at his own request, by the con- 
sent of the whole society ; affairs were debated and trans- 
acted by all ; whoever were excluded, were excommuni- 
cated by joint consent, and if they repented and requested 
re-admission, they were re-admitted in the same manner ; 
church officers were voluntarily elected for the sake of or- 
der; no society had any control over another, — advice 
might be given, but civil coersion was unknown : the 
whole was a state of perfect popular freedom ; — this was 
a fraternal system of order." Thus, we find the practice 
of the primitive churches in perfect harmony with the 
Scriptures and the churches under apostolic direction. 



Equality in the (Primitive Churches. 293 

Miall, in his Memorials of Early Christianity, declares: 
" That each Christian church was, in the 
earliest period of ecclesiastical history, in- >« . * »* 
dividualized and unassociated, except by 
the religious feelings which alike pervaded all, is ad- 
mitted by the most candid historians." And this liberty 
and equality in the transaction of church business ex- 
tended to all classes of members. Women were allowed 
to vote in church business. On this point, Neander re- 
marks : "As Christianity did not annihilate 
,i v , r , Sis. Three First 

the peculiar arrangements ot our nature, „ A . 1A , 
r fe % J Centuries, p. 104. 

founded in the laws of our original crea- 
tion, but sanctified and ennobled them, it did not (al- 
though, in reference to the higher life, the partition-wall 
between man and wife was taken away through .Christ, 
and in him man and wife became one), it did not, I say, 
allow the female sex to step out of the peculiar habits and 
destination indicated for it by nature herself. Women 
alone are interdicted by St. Paul (1 Cor.xiv: 34) from 
speaking in the church — a proof, also, that no other ex- 
ception from this general right of all Christians existed." 
The historian here draws the conclusion, very justly, we 
think, that women are privileged to exercise all the duties 
of other members, unless interdicted by Inspiration. They 
were only forbidden to speak on certain occasions in the 
church, which indicates the right for them to exercise the 
other duties of church members. And in this early period, 
slaves themselves were not prohibited from the exercise of 
equal privileges with other members. On this point, Mr. 
Robinson remarks, that : " It is clear that 

such slaves as chose to become Christians ° " * w " ap 7 

p. b(X). 
were treated by the churches as brethren — 



294 (Primitive Churches. 

were admitted to fellowship, and, in all religious matters, 
put on a footing of equality with their masters. It was a 
character to the Gospel that it was embraced by freemen — 
that slaves very seldom appeared in the primitive churches, 
and that, when they did, they appeared without compul- 
sion — not as slaves but as brethren." Other authorities 
might be adduced on this point ; but it is unnecessary : for 
it is established, beyond reasonable doubt, that the primi- 
tive churches, during this period, possessed the Bible 
characteristic which now distinguishes the Baptists — the 
equality of privilege in the execution of the laws in the 
kingdom of Christ. 

Furthermore : there is no difficulty in proving that the 
primitive churches retained the sixth peculiarity. It is 
already settled that the churches planted by the apostles 
were strict in their terms of communion. And as the Bible 
demands strict communion — and it is admitted that the 
primitive churches conformed to the Bible in this particu- 
lar — therefore it is admitted that the primitive churches 
were strict in their terms of communion. And no one will 
contend that the primitive churches communed with the 
modern sects that now demand communion with Baptists ; 
and, therefore, those who commune with these sects find 
neither precept nor example in the Word of God, or in the 
churches that flourished immediately after the apostolic age, 
for such an inconsistent practice. The mighty flood of per- 
secution against the early Christians was not intended to 
make them give up their religion, but to force them to 
acknowfedge the validity of pagan worship by burning 
incense to their gods, and thus communing with them. 
They were persecuted, not because they professed the 
Christian religion, but because they claimed it as the only 



(Restricted Communion. 295 

true religion. They would not, by any act of affiliation or 

communion, recognize the authority of the pagan worship. 

Pliny, the younger, said of them : " For I 

did not in the least hesitate, but that what- on ft ' u "* 

. . P* 98. 

ever should appear on confession to be their 

faith, yet that their forwardness and inflexible obstinacy 
would certainly deserve punishment." But Mr. Jones 
asks: "What was the ( inflexible obstinacy V It could 
not be in professing a new religion ; that w T as a thing com- 
mon enough. It was the refusing all communion with 
paganism — refusing to throw a grain of incense on their 
altars. For we must not think, as is commonly imagined, 
that this w^as at first enforced by the magistrate to make 
them renounce their religion; but only to give a test of 
its hospitality and sociableness of temper. It was, indeed, 
and rightly, too, understood by the Christians to be a re- 
nouncing of their religion, and so, accordingly, abstained 
from. The misfortune was, that the pagans did not con- 
sider the inflexibility as a mere error, but as an immoral- 
ity likewise. This unsociable, uncommunicable temper in 
matters of religious worship, was esteemed, by the best of 
them, as a hatred and aversion to mankind. Thus, Taci- 
tus, speaking of the burning of Rome, calls Christians 
'persons convicted of hatred to all mankind/ But how? 
The confessions of the pagans themselves concerning the 
purity of the Christian morals, shows this could be no 
other than a being ' convicted ' of rejecting all intercom- 
munity of worship, — w 7 hich, so great was their prejudice, 
they thought could proceed from nothing but hatred to- 
ward mankind. Universal prejudice had made men re- 
gard a refusal of this intercommunity as the most brutal 
of all dissociability. And the Emperor Julian, who un- 



296 (Primitive Churches. 

derstood this matter the best of any, fairly owns that the 
Jews and Christians brought the execration of the world 
upon them by their aversion to the gods of paganism, and 
their refusal of all communication with them." 

The whole sectarian world, which may be regarded as 
Christianized paganism, now look upon the true Baptists 
in a similar light as did the ancient pagans upon the early 
Christians who refused all communion with them. In 
truth, the above quotation from Jones, with very little 
modification, will now represent the views and feelings of 
other denominations toward Baptists. These denomina- 
tions accuse us, as the pagans did the early Christians, 
with " refusing all communion with" them; with being 
" unsociable" "and uncommunicable;" of temper "in mat- 
ters of religious worship ; " and with being " persons con- 
victed of hatred to all" other denominations. But we re- 
joice in the fact that we are now reproached for the very 
same practice that brought reproach upon the first Chris- 
tians after the apostolic age. And Mosheim says, in regard 

to the catechumens, that : " The latter were 
2i suc h as h a( l n °t y e ^ been dedicated to 

God and Christ by baptism, and were, 
therefore, neither admitted to the public prayers nor to 
the holy communion, nor to the ecclesiastical assemblies." 
These catechumens who were, in the latter part of the 
second century, considered imperfect Christians, were not, 
as unbaptized persons, admitted to the communion of the 
church. Justin Martyr, who wrote his apology, which was 
addressed to the Emperor Antoninus Pius, about the year 

138 after Christ, speaks of the order of bap- 

Chris't p 182* y ^ sm an( ^ commun i° n ; as reported by Miall, 
as follows: "He speaks of the received 



(Restricted Communion. 297 

and baptized convert admitted by the kiss of peace, and 
of the administration of the eucharist to the convert 
so baptized by the presiding bishop ; which observance he 
declares the heathens to have imitated in the Mithryan 
mysteries." Thus we find, that in the second century 
baptism preceded the Lord's Supper. Miall also affirms 
that, "The Lord's Supper was not indis- 
criminately administered — being reserved fiT!°' f I. o^ ^ 
for those who had been baptized, and who 
had previously received, according to the expression of 
Tertullian, l pious initiation.' " This last writer was speak- 
ing of the practice of communion in the third century. 
The ancient Pedobaptists were more consistent than the 
modern, on the communion question; for, when infant 
baptism w T as first introduced on the ground of its necessity 
to infant salvation, infant communion was aslo connected 
with it for the same purpose. Modern Pedobaptists with- 
hold the Supper from their infant members, whom they 
regard as in the church ; and yet they complain of Bap- 
tist " close " communion ! Xeander, speaking of the rise 
of infant baptism and communion, remarks: "As it w T as 

in the North African Church that the ne- 

-. n • t* ± -i ;• a x Nean. Hist. Three 

cessity oi miant baptism w r as first pecu- ~ . . 2 

liarly insisted on, so also did they join 
with this notion that of infant communion" But enough 
on this point : no one pretends that the true churches of 
this period practiced open communion. Thus it is fully 
developed that the Bible peculiarity, which is also a Bap- 
tist peculiarity, that the Lord's table is restricted to the 
Lord's kingdom, is identified in the practice of the prim- 
itive churches. Once more : that the true church or kingdom 
of Jesus Christ was peculiarly persecuted, will be easily 



298 (Primitive Churches. 

identified in the history of the churches of this period. It 
was declared by the Savior himself, that the true disciples 
should be hated of all nations for his name's sake. Mos- 
heim, the historian, informs us that Nero, who was em- 
peror of Rome in the first century, accused the Christians 
of having set fire to the city — a crime which he himself had 
committed, — and to punish them, " He therefore wrapped 
up some of them in combustible garments, 

' ' ™ and ordered fire to be set to them when the 

p. 16. 

darkness came on, that thus, like torches, 
they might dispel the obscurity of the night ; while others 
were fastened to crosses, or torn to pieces by wild beasts, or 
put to death in some such dreadful manner. This horrid 
persecution was set on foot in the month of November, in 
the sixty- fourth year of Christ; and in it, according to 
some ancient accounts, St. Paul and St. Peter suffered 
martyrdom, though the latter assertion is contested by 
many as being absolutely irreconcilable with chronology/' 
It will be observed, that during this period, extending to 
the middle of the third century, the Christians were per- 
secuted by the heathen. The horrid and blasphemous 
practice of professed Christians slaughtering each other in 
the name of Jesus Christ, was, at this period, unknown to 
the world. It was during this time that the ten pagan 
persecutions spent their fury against the disciples of the 
despised Nazarine. No history, whether sacred or profane, 
has ever questioned the fact that these early Christians 
were peculiarly persecuted by their own emperors. Mr. 

Orchard says: "The city of Lyons was 

r f i- a K ™ U '- again visited with the vengeance of the em- 
vol. /, p. 163. 8 ^ . o ^ rt to _ _ _.. . 

peror. beverus, in 202, treated the Chris- 
tians of this city with the greatest cruelty. Such was the 



(Restricted Communion. 299 

excess of his barbarity that the rivers were colored with 
human blood, and the public places of the city were filled 
with the dead bodies of professors. It is recorded of this 
church, that since its formation it has been watered with 
the blood of twenty thousand martyrs." And the suffer- 
ings of the disciples of Christ in this city, are only a sam- 
ple of what they suffered in other countries. Among the 
vast numbers who were tortured in this city, Eusebius gives 
the following account of several individuals: "Maturus, 
therefore, and Sanctus, and Blandina, and 
Attalus/were led into the amphitheater to " 17 * fi *' 

the wild beasts, and to the common spec- 
tacle of heathenish inhumanity, — the day for exhibiting 
the fight with wild beasts being designedly published on 
our account. Maturus, however, and Sanctus, again 
passed through all the tortures in the amphitheater, just 
as if they had suffered nothing at all before, or rather as 
those who in many trials before had defeated the adver- 
sary, and now contending for the crown itself, again, as 
they passed, bore the strokes of the scourge usually inflicted 
there, the draggings and lacerations from the beasts, and all 
of the madness of the people, one here and another there, 
cried for and demanded ; and last of all, the iron chair, 
upon which their bodies were roasted, while the fumes of 
their own flesh ascended to annoy them. The tormentors 
did not cease even then, but continued to rage so much the 
more, intending, if possible, to conquer their perseverance. 
They could not, however, elicit or hear anything from 
Sanctus besides that confession which he had uttered from 
the beginning. These two, therefore, in whom life for the 
most part had remained through the mighty conflict, were 
at last dispatched. On that day they were made an ex- 



300 (Primitive Churches. 

hibition to the world, in place of the variety of gladiato- 
rial combats. Blandina, however, was bound and sus- 
pended on a stake, and thus exposed as food to the assaults 
of wild beasts ; and as she thus appeared to hang after the 
manner of the cross, by her earnest prayers she infused 
much alacrity into the contending martyrs. * * * * 
But as none of the beasts then touched her, she was taken 
down from the stake and remanded back again to prison, 
to be reserved for another contest. * * * Thus she 
overcome the enemy in many trials, and in the conflict 
received the crown of immortality/' Attalus, after being 
twice exposed in the theater, was finally beheaded. 

Vast numbers were thus tortured, and after their death 
many of their bodies were cast into heaps outside of the 
city, and guarded day and night to prevent friends from 
burying the remains of their mutilated bodies. Multi- 
tudes suffered throughout the Roman empire. At Car- 
thage the cruelty resembled that perpetrated at Lyons. 
Among the multitudes of martyrs at this city, we only 
give the account of the cruel martyrdom of two females, 
as reported in Jones' Church History. 

After Perpetua had entered the theater among the wild 
beasts, singing praises to God, her execution is thus re- 
ported : " Perpetua and Felicitas were first inclosed in a 
net, and then exposed to a wild cow. But 
on ™ • ls -> t|n S sight struck the spectators with hor- 
ror, as the former was a delicate woman, 
and the breasts of the latter were streaming with milk af- 
ter her delivery. They were, therefore, recalled, and ex- 
posed in a common loose dress. Perpetua was first tossed 
by the beast, and, being thrown down, she had the pres- 
ence of mind to compose her dress as she lay on the ground. 



(Primitive Churches (Persecuted. 301 

Then rising, and seeing Felicitas much more torn than 
herself, she gave her hand and assisted her to rise ; and 
for some time they both stood together, near the gate of 
the amphitheater. Thither Perpetua sent for her brother, 
and exhorted him to continue firm in the faith, to love 
his fellow Christians, and not to be discouraged by her 
sufferings. Being all in a mangled condition, they were 
now taken to the usual place of execution, to be dispatched 
with a sword ; but the populace requesting that they should 
be removed to another place, where the execution might be 
seen to more advantage, they got up, of their own accord, 
to go thither. Then, having given each other the kiss of 
charity, they quietly resigned themselves to their fate. In 
walking, Saturus had supported Perpetua, and he expired 
the first. She was observed to direct a young and igno- 
rant soldier, who w r as appointed to be her executioner, in 
what manner he should perform his office." 

The malignant enmity of the carnal heart was mani- 
fested in the persecution and crucifixion of Jesus Christ ; 
and after his execution the apostles fell martyrs to the fury 
of the heathen world. And the same unrelenting perse- 
cution followed the pathway of the Church of Christ 
through the period of the primitive churches which we 
have been considering. Therefore, these ancient churches 
possessed, in an eminent degree, the Bible peculiarity of 
being persecuted and every-where spoken against. We 
have seen, in the foregoing examination, that the Bible 
characteristics are sufficiently developed in the history of 
these early churches to identify them with the kingdom 
of Christ ; and as Baptists now possess the same peculiar- 
ities, these early churches were such as would now be 
called Baptist churches. 



302 (Primitive Churches. 



Section II. — Bishop and elder the same office. 

In human religious societies the membership have not 
only been deprived of their rights of participation in the 
transaction of church business, but a gradation of minis- 
terial offices has been inaugurated which places some min- 
isters over others in point of office, as lords over their 
brethren. It will be found, upon a strict examination of 
the New Testament, that there are only two classes of 
officers in the churches of Christ, and they are chosen by, 
and are amenable to, the churches for their official actions. 
In truth, they are only servants of the churches. This was 
fully shown in chapter twelve, where peculiarity fifth is 
tested by the Bible. 

. At this place we design to introduce authorities to show 
that the primitive churches recognized the Bible doctrine 
of the official equality of bishops (episcopoi) and elders 
(presbuteroi). Mr. Miall, in his Memorials, says : " But, 
besides these extraordinary officers, each 
Ph^-°f 7ff r ^ church possessed the power, under the ad- 
vice and admonition of the apostles, of 
electing distinct officers for the arrangement of its peculiar 
concerns. These were presbyters (as they were designated 
by the application of a term in use by the Jewish syna- 
gogues) or bishops (as they were called at a somewhat 
later period by a phrase familiar to Gentile usages). 
The terms are obviously interchangeable — the former re- 
ferring to the character which fitted them for the office; 
the latter to the relations of the office itself." And Ne- 
ander, the historian, to the same effect, 
,?•' Tn« m ~ a; ffi rms : " That the name also, episcopos, 
was altogether synonymous with that 



(Bishop and Elder the Same Office. 303 

of presbyter, is clearly collected by the passages of 
Scripture where both appellations are interchanged (Acts 
xx ; compare ver. 17 with ver. 28 : Epistle to Titus, 
ch. i: verses 5 and 7), as well as from those where the 
mention of the office of deacon follows immediately after 
that of ' episcopi ; J so that a third class of officers could 
not lie between the two." And even Mr. Waddington, 
the Episcopal historian, affirms that: "It is also true, 

that in the earliest government of the 

r»,™.,. ., .i , /» t His. of the Church. 

first Christian society — that ol Jerusa- ^ 

lem — not the elders only, but the whole 
church were associated with the apostles : and it is even 
certain that the terms bishop and elder, or presbyter, were 
in the first instance, and for a short period, sometimes 
used synonymously, and indiscriminately applied to the 
same order in the ministry." 

Thus it is seen that the early churches of this period 
followed the example of the apostolic churches in the elec- 
tion of their officers. The gradation of ministerial offices 
in the churches has no support from the Scriptures. The 
only offices retained in the churches are those of elders or 
bishops and deacons, and these must be chosen or elected 
by the churches. The idea of a universal bishop over all 
the churches, is peculiar to Rome and her off-shoots. A 
bishop or elder, in the New Testament, was simply a min- 
ister chosen and ordained to the work by the authority of 
the congregation. There were sometimes a plurality of 
bishops in one church ; and in the apostolic age the epis- 
copacy of one elder never extended beyond the bounds of 
one congregation. The idea of one man acting as pastor 
for three or four churches, is a modern custom which should 
be abandoned. 



304 (Primitive Churches. 

By reference to Acts, twentieth chapter, it will be seen 
that Paul " sent to Ephesus and called the elders of the 
church/' verse seventeen ; and to the same eiders he said : 
"Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and 
to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost 
hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which 
he hath purchased with his own blood." The word over- 
seers in this passage, is episcopous in the Greek — the word 
which is usually translated bishops; but to have rendered 
it bishops in this place, would have shown that elder and 
bishop is the same office, which would have condemned 
the church of the translators. In the first ages of the 
church, there was no such a thing known as the bishop of 
a state or province. As before seen, Mosheim says: "A 
bishop, during the first and second century, 
os. i. is ory, person who had the care of one 

p. 20. . . . . 

Christian assembly, which, at that time, 

was, generally speaking, small enough to be contained in a 
private house. In this assembly he acted, not so much with 
the authority of a master, as ivith the zeal and diligence of 
a faithful sei % vant" 

We have emphasized this statement of the historian to 
call attention to the importance of the subject. It was 
left for the corruptions of after times to establish the dio- 
cesan episcopacy, which has overshadowed the nations 
with a gloomy spiritual despotism for many centuries. 



Section III. — Leading errors which originated 

DURING THIS PERIOD. 

The apostle Paul predicted that there would " come a 
falling away first, and that man of sin be 
revealed, the son of perdition ; " and that the 



(Rise of the Hierarchy. 305 

"mystery of iniquity" had already begun to work in his 
own time. It was the gradual introduction of those errors 
that some regard as things non-essential, w r hich has pro- 
duced the mighty harvest of iniquity which has overshad- 
owed the world for so many ages. 

First, the hierarchy : Christian philosophers soon began 
to engraft Judaism and heathen philosophy into Chris- 
tianity. On this point, Mr. Robinson says : " In the third 
century Jewish theology drew off the at- 
tention ol Christians trom the simplicity 124 
of Jesus and the Gospel, and fixed it on 
an hierarchy, particularly in the great corrupt and wealthy' 
churches of Rome, Antioch, Alexandria, and Carthage. 
This introduced, by degrees, a second period, and second 
system of ecclesiastical management, named by this author, 
the Episcopal system of church law." It was as early as 
the beginning of the third century that some of the pastors 
or bishops began to assume unscriptural authority over the 
churches. This was not the case among all the churches, 
but it was only a few churches in the great cities, whose 
pastors had begun to assume the leadership. These 
churches were afterward called Metropolitan churches. 
We will name, therefore, as the first leading error of this 
period, the tendency toward a hierarchical form of church 
government. On this point, Miall remarks : " It is, how- 
ever, very clear that this century wit- 
nessed a rapid increase of the hierarchical ^?\ °f ?^ ly 

r . Christ, p. 227. 

power, lhe clergy began, for the first 

time, to be distinguished from the laity. The bishops 
assumed the titles and offices of the Jewish priesthood. 
The primitive virtues by which many of the pastors of the 
Metropolitan churches were distinguished, caused them to 



306 (Primitive Churches. 

be regarded as the advisers of neighboring churches, and 
paved the way for an assertion of superiority which speed- 
ily passed the bounds of apostolical prescription." This 
usurpation of authority over the churches, which began to 
show itself as early as the close of the second century, con- 
tinued gradually to unfold itself till the faithful churches 
were compelled, in order to preserve their purity, to de- 
clare non-fellowship for those ministers and churches 
which had adopted the corrupt principles of church gov- 
ernment. It was this first apparently small departure 
from the true system of government which, in future times, 
culminated into that huge system of stupendous fraud and 
despotism known as the Romanish Church. 

Second : The second leading error which originated in 
this period, is the doctrine of baptismal salvation. This 
doctrine was based upon the false interpretation of those 
Scriptures which speak of baptism for remission of sins ; 
and especially John, where they made born of water, mean 
baptism. It is admitted that baptism represents the wash- 
ing away of sins. The same principles of Scripture inter- 
pretation which gave birth to baptismal salvation, also 
gave birth to transubstantiation. Of this defection from 
the truth on the part of some, Miall remarks : " In the 

ante-Nicene period, sin was regarded much 
l enw. of or y re j n -^ over £ demonstrations than in 
Christ., p. 368. 

its spiritual destructiveness ; repentance 

had degenerated into penance; regeneration into baptism; 
justification by' faith, into just what the ninetieth number 
of 'The Tracts for the Times } declares it to be; and 
sanctification was lost in the names of sacred persons, 
sacred things, and sacred places. All this was before the 
Papacy had begun to blazon its triple crown, or to set its 



Origin of (Baptismal Salvation. 307 

feet upon the necks of kings." It is difficult to ascertain 
at what precise point of time the error of baptismal salva- 
tion was first advocated; it is certain, however, that it 
was advocated by a large number as early as the middle 
of the third century; and it is likely that some embraced 
this view as early as the close of the second century. Bap- 
tismal salvation was an innovation brought in, in some 
places, along with the change of the form of church gov- 
ernment to a hierarchy. Xeander and Waddington both 
testify that baptismal salvation was a departure from the 
original doctrine of the design of baptism. And when 
this superstitious error concerning baptism was established, 
it opened the way for other superstitions, which tended to 
clothe the baptismal ceremony with a mysterious grandeur 
and importance which excited the admiration of the peo- 
ple. Among the attending superstitions added to bap- 
tismal salvation, may be mentioned the sign of the cross, 
blowing in the mouth of the candidate, the use of crism, 
and the giving of the newly baptized persons milk and 
honey, as a symbol of the new life. 

Third : Another serious error, which appeared in this 
period, is that which is usually called infant baptism. 
This error originated about the beginning of the third 
century. It appeared immediately after the introduction 
of baptismal salvation. It at first prevailed mostly in 
North Africa. As it had no support from the Scrip- 
tures, it claimed tradition for its authority. Origin, the 
great champion of infant baptism in the third century, 
supported infant baptism upon the authority of tradition. 

Neander remarks that : " Origin, in whose 

. n j. i i- i i_- r His. Three First 

system infant baptism stood very high, Cmturies> p m 

though not in the same point of view as 



308 (Primitive Churches. 

the North African Church, declares that it is an apostolic 
tradition, — a declaration which can not, in that century, 
be considered of any great weight, because men were at 
that time so much inclined to deduce the ordinances, 
which they thought of great importance, from the apos- 
tles; and, beside this, there were many partition walls 
between this and the apostolic age, which prevented a free 
insight into that age." It appears, then, that the first 
advocates of infant baptism did not attempt to sustain it 
from the Word of God, but upon the authority of tradi- 
tion. Neander, the historian, admits that : " It is certain 

TT . T ■„ that Christ did not ordain infant baptism." 

Ibid., p. 198. „ TTr . \ 

"We can not prove that the apostles or- 
dained infant baptism ; " and, " The first passage which 
appears expressly to point to this matter, is found in 
Irenseus." It is thought that Irenseus alludes to infant 
baptism because he speaks of regeneration in connection 
with infants. This view is based upon the supposition 
that Irenseus uses the term regeneration as synonymous 
with baptism when referring to infants. It is admitted 
that some writers, about this time, used the term regenera- 
tion, in a figurative way, to denote baptism; but there k 
no evidence that Irenseus used the term in the sense of 
baptism in the instance referred to. Irenseus does not men- 
tion infant baptism at all. He flourished in the latter 
part of the second century. No writer in the second cen- 
tury has mentioned infant baptism at all. "Tertullian 

was inquired of, by a rich lady named 
T \ 1 ^69 ' Quintilla, who lived at Pepuza, a town 

of Phrygia, whether infants might be bap- 
tized on condition they ashed to be baptized, and pro- 
duced sponsors?" This was not an inquiry about the 



(Rise of Infant (Baptism. 309 

baptism of unconscious babes, but of children which were 
old enough to ash for it. In answer to this inquiry, Ter- 
tullian violently opposed the baptism of such children. 
It is evident, however, that the baptism of babes prevailed 
in North Africa as early as the middle of the third cen- 
tury. This is proved from a decision of a council at 
Carthage, held in the year 252. Bishop Fidus made the 
inquiry, of these African bishops, whether infants "should 
be baptized immediately after birth, or eight days after, 
as in the case of circumcision." Cyprian, then bishop of 
Carthage, answered Fidus, in the name of the council, that 

"Xone of us could agree to your opinion; 
i , -1-, -i , . ,i ,t_ * His. Three First 

but we all determine that the grace oi n . . OAA 
'* ' _. _ . _ . b Centuries, p. 200. 

God [in baptism] is not to be refused to 

any human being, as soon as he is born." We have not 
space to quote all the answer of this African council to 
Fidus, removing his objection to the baptism of infants 
under eight days old. The first recorded name of a bap- 
tized child is that of Galates. On this point Mr. Rob- 
inson says : " There is not one record of 
the baptism of a child till the year 370, Roh ^ s Eccl Res > 
when Galates, the dying son of the Em- 
peror Valens, was baptized, by order of a monarch w r ho 
swore he would not be contradicted." Though this is the 
first time that we have the name recorded of the baptism 
of an infant, yet it is evident that infant baptism w r as 
practiced, at least in Africa, prior to this time, as seen by 
the decision of the African bishops in the case of Fidus, 
eighteen years before. When we speak of infant bap- 
tism we do not mean infant sprinkling ; for the baptism 
of infants, for centuries after its introduction, was a total 
immersion. As error always bears its fruits, so infant 



310 (Primitive Churches. 

baptism, which was the offspring of baptismal salvation, 
produced a harvest of error and superstitions. The first 
among these is infant communion. Mr. Robinson says, 

that: "The same Innocent very consist- 
" ' '' ently introduced infant communion ; — this 

grew out of infant baptism, as that did 
out of original sin/' 

The order of the rise of infant baptism and communion 
is reported by Mr. Robinson as having been stated by 
Jerom Piescarski in the synod of Brest, in 1558, in Lith- 
uania, as follows : " He then came to baptism, and affirmed 

that infant baptism had no place in the 

' ' *' Scripture ; that in the two first centuries it 

p. 579. . 

was not mentioned ; that it rose in Africa 

in the third century, and was opposed by Tertullian ; that 
the first canons to enjoin it were made at a council at Mela, 
in Africa, in the year four hundred and eighteen ; that 
infant communion came in at the same time; that before 
this, people were put into the state of catechumens, and 
instructed in the Christian faith ; that then they were ex- 
amined concerning their faith, and, on confessing it, were 
baptized by immersion; that in the fourth and fifth centu- 
ries, while the Papal power continued feeble, though in- 
creasing, the children of believers, even those of bishops, 
were not baptized till they were adults, and some, as Am- 
brose, not till they had been elected and were going to 
accept the office of bishops ; and that some deferred it till 
they were just ready to die." In this quotation we have 
an account of the gradual growth of infant baptism among 
those who finally assumed the title of Catholic Church. 
Infant baptism also gave rise to the superstitions and 
blasphemous custom of having a god-fathers and god- 



(Rise of Infant (Baptism. 311 

mothers." These god-fathers and god-mothers were to 
answer the questions, promise to renounce the devil, etc., 
and make profession of faith, instead of the child. We 
have thus briefly sketched the rise of these fundamental 
errors, which, in after years, overflowed the world with a 
mighty deluge of superstition and crime. Dr. Gill, in speak- 
ing of the rise of infant baptism and popery, uses the follow- 
ing strong language : " The two are, in fact, indissolubly 
united — one in their origin, their growth, 

and their results. The same mother- An J ^ r ^ y 

p. 42. 

heresy — Baptismal Regeneration — which 
gave birth to Popery, gave birth to infant baptism. They 
were engendered in the same dark womb of ignorance and 
superstition. They came forth together. They grew up 
together. Together they overspread the nations. And 
together shall they disappear before the light of Christ's 
Gospel, and the brightness of his coming." After thirty- 
five years' investigation of the question of infant baptism, 
the learned J. Newton Brown gave utterance to the fol- 
lowing language : " Infant baptism is an 
error from beginning to end: corrupt in Ba ^ wt Martyrs, 

, ° , • i p. lo. 

theory, and corrupting m practice; born 
in superstition, cradled in fear, nursed in ignorance, sup- 
ported by fraud, and spread by force : doomed to die in 
the light of historical investigation, and its very memory 
to be loathed in all future ages by a disabused church. In 
the realms of despotism it has shed the blood of martyrs 
in torrents : that blood cries against it to heaven ; and a 
long-suffering God will yet be the terrible avenger. The 
book before us is a swift witness against it." This con- 
densed statement contains the truth, as found in history, 
of the rise and fearful results of infant baptism. Some 



312 (Primitive Churches. 

have plead for infant baptism on the ground of its an- 
tiquity ; but if the age of a doctrine proved its correctness, 
then many of the grossest superstitions of Rome must be 
correct, for they are as ancient as infant baptism. No 
error has the right to plead antiquity. A doctrine with- 
out the support of the Scriptures, must be given up. 



(Baptist Succession. 313 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE NOVATIAN PERIOD— ABOUT TWO HUNDRED 
YEARS. 

1. Peculiarities applied to the Novatians. 

2. The Great Apostacy. 

Section I. — Peculiarities applied to the nova- 
tians. 

" A man that is a heretic, after the first and second ad- 
monition, reject : knowing that he that is - n _ _ 
such, is subverted, and smnetn, being con- 
demned of himself." God requires entire separation on 
the part of his people from all idolatrous worshipers, 
whether they are known by heathen or Christian names. 
It may be well to observe that error has always sought 
fellowship with the truth ; or, in other words, the advo- 
cates of false doctrine desire fellowship and communion 
with those who embrace the doctrine of Christ ; for they 
know that this is the most effectual way to give currency 
to heresy. But God requires his faithful witnesses to 
touch not, taste not, handle not, the commandments and 
doctrines of men. 

In following up the chain of succession, we have already 
seen that there was a division in the church at Rome, led 
by Novatian, in favor of purity of communion. This was 
not a division in the Roman Catholic Church, for at that 
time — 251 — there was no such church in the world. Those 
churches and brethren throughout the empire which re- 



314 The J\fovatian (Period. 

mained firm for the Bible doctrine of purity, in faith and 
worship, were called by their enemies Novatians. It has 
already been seen, that they did not originate with Nova- 
tian, but were the descendants of the primitive churches. 
We now proceed to examine more fully into the Baptist 
character of the people called Novatians. When we say 
Baptist character, we mean Bible character ; for we have 
already proved that the Baptist peculiarities are the Bible 
peculiarities : we will, therefore, use the phrases Baptist 
'peculiarities and Bible peculiarities synonymously. We 
now proceed to examine the Novatian peculiarities. 

First : They claimed no other founder and head except 
Jesus Christ. This is seen in the fact, as already shown, 

that they "Have some just claims to be 

Religious Encyc, 1 i , -i , j i 

J u * regarded as the pure, uncorrupted, and 

apostolic church of Christ." And as they 
claim to be the pure, uncorrupted, and apostolic church, 
they must have claimed Jesus as their Founder and Head. 

Of their claims, Neander says : " The No- 
• ' . ' vatianists, therefore, as they claimed to be 

the only unstained, pure church, called 
themselves oi hatharoi — * the pure/ " The charge that 
Novatian was the founder of the Novatian churches, is 
without solid foundation. It is well to observe, however, 
that they have never been charged with claiming Nova- 
tian either as founder or head. It was their bitter foes 
■ that made this charge. The Novatians were counted her- 
etics by the corrupt party who began to call themselves 
Catholics. Mr. Waddington gives the following necessary 

caution : " Charges, indeed, or insinua- 
His. of the Church, ... n x i . • ... 

xq tions oi the grossest impurities, are some- 

times thrown out by the orthodox writers 



JVovatians claimed no Founder but Jesus. 315 

against the early heretics ; but we are bound to receive 

them with great caution, because the answers which may 

have been given to them are lost, and because they are 

not generally justified by any authentic records which we 

possess respecting the lives of those heretics." And Mr. 

Robinson says : " The history of Nova- 

tian is long, and, like that of all others in " n ' ,? 

r . P« 126. 

his condition, beclouded with fables and 

slander." The Novatian churches possess the Baptist pe- 
culiarity of acknowledging no founder and head except 
Jesus Christ. 

Second : The Xovatians claimed no other standard of 
faith and practice except the Bible. Very little need be 
said on this point, as they have never been charged with 
appealing to any standard except the Scriptures. The 
Kovatians were also called Paterines, in after-times; and 
they are known to have claimed the Scriptures alone as 
their rule of conduct. It is, therefore, taken for granted — 
unless proof to the contrary can be produced — that the 
Xovatians possessed the Baptist characteristic that the 
Word of God alone is the rule of faith and practice. 

Third: The Xovatians also held the Bible order of 
the commandments. Mr. Robinson states the Novatian 
doctrine thus : " The Xovatians said, if 
you be a virtuous believer, and will ac- °'* CG ' w,> 
cede to our confederacy against sin, you 
may be admitted among us by baptism ; or if any Catho- 
lic has baptized you before, by re-baptism ; but, mark 
this : if you violate the contract by lapsing into idolatry 
or vice, we shall separate you from our community, and, 
do what you will, we shall never readmit you." This 
shows that the order observed by the Novatians was to 



316 The JJovatian (Period. 

admit no one to baptism except believers ; and the com- 
plaints of their enemies, as well as their own statements 
concerning the strictness of their discipline, settle the 
point that they only observed the communion with those 
who had been baptized and were in church-fellowship. 

The Novatians " look upon every society 

Rob's Eccl. His.. i«i -i •,, j i • _& " j , 

- OK which readmitted heinous offenders to 

p. 125. 

communion, as unworthy of the title of a 
true Christian church." From this we discover that the 
Novatians were so strict in their views of communion that 
they did not regard an open-communion church, one that 
admits heinous offenders, as worthy of the name of a Chris- 
tian church. In fact, fio party of professed Christians had 
at this time so far departed from the Bible order of the 
commandments as to place communion before baptism. 
Dr. Wall, the learned Episcopalian, sums up the facts of 
history on this point, in the following words : " Among 

all the absurdities that ever were held, 
is. oj nj. ap- none eyer ma j n tained that, — that any per- 
tism, p. 786. 7 / * 

son should partake of the communion be- 
fore he was baptized." And as we have no account of the 
Novatians, or any others, attempting to change the order 
of repentance and faith, we may, therefore, justly con- 
clude that the Novatians possessed the Baptist peculiarity 
of holding repentance, faith, baptism, and the Lord's 
Supper. 

Fourth : The Novatians also possessed the Bible pecu- 
liarity of burying in baptism only those who professed to 
be dead to sin. We have already shown that they bap- 
tized only believers. It has been observed, no doubt, that 
we have not discussed the claims of the Donatists; not be- 
cause they did not possess the characteristics of the Church 



Novations (Bury in (Baptism. 317 

of Christ, but because it was unnecessary in establishing the 
line of succession. They can be vindicated from the mis- 
representations of their enemies. Speaking of the views 
of the Donatists in Africa, and N ovatians in Italy, Cyspin, 

the French historian, says: "That they 

-i -i -, , n . ., »» n . , -i . . Z> , A?iverso7i Bap- 

hold together in the following things, viz: . ™ r 

First, for purity of church-members, by 
asserting that none ought to be admitted into churches 
but such as were visibly true believers and real saints. 
Second, for the purity of church-discipline, as the appli- 
cation of church-censures, and keeping out such as had 
apostatized or scandalously sinned. Third, they both 
agreed in asserting the power, rights, and privileges of par- 
ticular churches against antichristian encroachments of 
presbyters, bishops and synods. Fourth, that they bap- 
tized again those whose first baptism they had grounds to 
doubt." The point in this quotation to which we wish 
attention at present, is, that the Novatians asserted " that 
none ought to be admitted into churches but such as were 
visibly true believers and, real saints ." They were regarded 
as real saints before baptism and church membership ; they 
did not, therefore, baptize unpardoned sinners in order to 
make saints of them. Thus, we discover that the Nova- 
tians held the Baptist doctrine of burying in baptism only 
those who were dead to, or freed from, sin. And that, with 
them, the action of baptism was a burial or immersion, is 
evident from the following facts : First, it is known to 
historians, that immersion was the general practice of all 
professed Christians during this period ; the only excep- 
tions allowed were in cases of sickness, where some among: 
the corrupt churches received affusion on their sick beds. 
On this subject, Dr. Whitby remarked, that: "It is so 



318 The Novatian (Period. 

expressly declared here (Rom. vi: 4, and Col. ii: 12), that 
we are buried with Christ in baptism by 

mons is. oj j^^g. J3 Ur iedL under the water; and the 
Baptism, p. 109. & ' . 

argument to oblige us to conformity to his 

death, by dying to sin, being taken hence ; and this immer- 
sion being religiously observed by all Christians for thir- 
teen centuries , and approved by the church ; and the change 
of it into sprinkling, even without any allowance from the 
author of the institution, or any license from any council 
of the church, being that which the Romanist still urgeth 
to justify his refusal of the cup to the laity. " But we 
have more direct evidence that the Novatians practiced 
immersion as baptism. Mr. Orchard, the historian, says 

of the Novations, that "all converts were 
S. Bapt. Review. . j j n i , j /? ,i 

^^ immersed, and all proselyted trom other 

churches were re-immersed" 

Also, speaking of the church at Rome, Mr. Robinson 

says : " Not one natural infant of any de- 
Rob.'s Eccl. Res., . , . . ,i • t i i . ^ 

1 o . scription appears m this church during the 

first three centuries, and immersion was 

the only method of baptizing." 

Again, Mr. Robinson says: "No alteration was made 

in the mode of administering baptism. 
Rob.' 's Eccl. Res., T , a - i i xu* 

o 84 It was dipping every-wnere, and nothing 

else." The Novatians not only immersed 
their candidates, but they re-immersed those who had 
been previously immersed by other parties; hence they 
were stigmatized as Anabaptists. On this point, Mr. Orch- 
ard says : " I am satisfied that the Church 
re . is.oj ng. f £) nr i s ^ wn i cn nas witnessed for him, has, 

from the days of Novatian, been stigma- 
tized with the name of Anabaptists. This re-baptizing, 



Cornelius against Jtfovatian. 319 

standing as it does in ecclesiastical, political and commer- 
cial history, decides, in the most satisfactory manner, our 
jealousy over the house of God, and our watchful care for 
Scriptural communion."" We consider it a point estab- 
lished beyond successful controversy, that the Novatians 
possessed the Baptist characteristic of holding the burial 
with Christ, only of those who professed to be dead to, or 
freed from, sin. 

Before leaving this point, it may be proper to mention 
the fact, that Novatian himself is said to have been as- 
persed for baptism. Of N ovatian, Eusebius quotes Cor- 
nelius as saying : " To him, indeed, the 

,-. -, . ,. , n i . n .,i c Euseb. Eccl. His., 

author and instigator of his faith was Sa- ™ 
. . . P* 266. 

tan, who entered into and dwelt in him a 

long time; who, aided by the exorcists, when attacked 

with an obstinate disease, and being supposed at the point 

of death, was baptized by aspersion, in the bed on which 

he lay — if, indeed, it be proper to say that one like him 

did receive baptism." Again, Cornelius, the enemy and 

rival of jSovatian, says of him : " This illus- 

i -i . i ™ IMd> P- 266 - 

trious character abandoning the Church of 

God, in which, when he was converted, he was honored 

with the presbytery, and that by the favor of the bishop 

placing his hands upon him (ordaining him) to the order of 

bishop, and as all the clergy and many of the laity resisted 

it, since it was not lawful that one baptized in his sick bed by 

aspersion, as he was, should be promoted to any order of the 

clergy, the bishop requested that it should be granted him 

to ordain only this one." There is evidently two points in 

this charge of Cornelius against the claims of Novatian. 

First: The validity of his baptism is questioned, on the 

ground of his being an improper subject; for Cornelius 



320 The JVovatian (Period. 

says : " If, indeed, it be proper to say that one like him 
did receive baptism." Cornelius had declared that the 
faith of Novatian had been instigated by Satan, and that 
he was possessed with the Devil, who had entered into 
him ; and that he received baptism in bed, through fear 
of death. "Without referring to the truth or falsehood of 
these charges, at the present, a very important point is 
brought out by them — viz : that even in the most corrupt 
party, in this period, it was considered necessary that one 
should be a good man to render his baptism valid. /Sec- 
ond; That aspersion was considered, at most, imperfect 
baptism ; for Cornelius said : " It was not lawful that one 
baptized in his sick bed by aspersion, as he was, should 
be promoted to any order of the clergy." This was de- 
signed to be the statement of a general law or custom, 
that no one, it matters not what his spiritual condition, who 
was baptized in his sick bed by aspersion, was eligible to the 
office of the ministry. This view is sustained from the fact 
that the bishop that ordained Novatian pleaded "that it 
should be granted him to ordain only this one," who had 
been aspersed in his sick bed. And more : If there had 
been no design to cast suspicion on the character of Nova- 
tian's baptism on account of the " mode," why did Corne- 
lius repeatedly state that it was "by aspersion?" It 
appears, that in the former of the two quotations from 
Cornelius, the charge against the validity of Novatian's 
baptism is mainly based on his depraved character; but, 
in the latter, the point is made prominent, that aspersion 
is imperfect baptism, and not sufficient for a candidate for 
the ministerial office. Elder Geo. Varden, in his valuable 
criticism, found in the Baptist Monthly for 1867, shows 
clearly that the writers who have based the objection of 



Cyprian on Jtfovatian's (Baptism. 321 

Cornelius to the validity of Novatian's baptism mainly on 

the ground of the action being aspersion, have fallen into 

an error. Elder "Varden remarks : u Cor- 

-,. -it , iy> • ,i »!-/. -XT Baptist Monthly, 

nelms could not sufficiently viliiy JNova- £~ *' 

tian. Hence there can be no doubt that 
ton toiouton (such a one) points with emphasis to the char- 
acter and disposition of Novatian, whose very pretensions 
to religion were all the work of the Devil. This wretch, 
fearing he was going to die, was sprinkled on his bed — if, 
indeed, it is fit to say that such a one (so depraved) re- 
ceived it. The validity, therefore, to which Cornelius, in 
consequence of his estimate of JSTovatian, refers, arises 
from the character of the man, not his mode of baptism. 
Whatever else there may be to show that his baptism was 
regarded as invalid in consequence of the mode, this sub- 
junctive sentence of Cornelius does not." 

But, does history record that aspersion was considered 
Scriptural and proper baptism in this period? By no 
means. Elder Varden places this subject in its proper 

light, in the following: "The main fact 

,i #» • /., xl .i Baptist Monthly, 

that perfusion (it was more than sprmk- -L^. *' 

ling) was, at that time, held to be an un- 
usual and improper baptism, allowed only in extreme cases, 
is substantiated without employing these doubtful or erro- 
neous arguments." * * * " It may not be prudent to leave 
this subject without indicating the true proof. First, then, 
respecting the case of Novatian, Cyprian writes, Epistle 
69: 'In two respects Xovatian seemed censurable: in the 
first place, he had caused a schism in respect to the lapsed ; 
and in the second place, he had been sprinkled on his bed> 
but had not been baptized. There is certainly no 
ambiguity here. There existed a very prevalent impres- 



322 The JNovatian (Period. 

sion that sprinkling, or rather pouring, was an imperfect 
baptism, and, therefore, did not secure the blessings prom- 
ised to immersion/ Cyprian thus meets this state of things, 
Epistle 76 : 'If any one supposes that they obtain nothing 
because the waters of salvation have been only poured 
on them, but are destitute (of God's grace), let them not 
be deceived, but, if they regain their health, let them be 
baptized.' It is clear that by baptizentur, Cyprian means 
immersion ; it stands in contrast to perfusi sunt. Is not 
this passage proof that, though perfusion was, in the mid- 
dle of the third century, allowed, it was unsatisfactory and 
informal? Meeting the same issue, Cyprian, in the same 
epistle, remarks : i In the sacraments of salvation, when 
necessity compels and God grants indulgence, the divine 
compends confer the whole (that immersion does) on those 
that believe/ He means, that though the rite be abridged 
from immersion to perfusion, yet, in cases of necessity, the 
latter mode will secure the divine blessing on the recipient. 
Perfusion is an abridgment of the divine command, and 
was vindicated only in cases of necessity " 

The above testimony of Cyprian is but the voice of his- 
tory in regard to the popular party which, in later times, 
changed both the action and subjects of baptism, and 
produced that monstrous system called Popery. It can 
not be found in history that a single case of sprinkling, 
pouring, aspersion, or perfusion, for baptism, has ever oc- 
curred among the Novatians, unless Novatian himself was 
one. And it will be remembered that Novatian received 
his " baptism/' unless he was re-baptized, in the lax party 
from which he separated on the account of their loose dis- 
cipline. In regard to the rise of aspersion, Elder Varden 
remarks: "We shall quote only one Pedobaptist author 



Cyprian for Affusion. 323 

to evince this. Alting says: 'Aspersion is first men- 
tioned by Cyprian, who died as a martyr, A. D. 259. 
Those who could not with safety be immersed, in conse- 
quence of sickness, had water poured over them ; but it 
was doubted whether such a baptism w^as lawful. But 
Cyprian took in hand to defend it — in such a way, how- 
ever, as not to censure those who opposed it ; yet even he 
did not maintain that it could be employed promiscuously 
with immersion in cases of health/ And in another place 
Alting tells us that i Cyprian, arguing for aspersion, em- 
ployed neither apostolic testimony nor example.' And we 
may add, that of all the laws which, during centuries, were 
made concerning baptism, no one made sprinkling and 
immersion indifferent, till the Council of Ravenna, A. D. 
1311, declared them so. Hence it is that the scholastic 
theologians, while they argue for pouring and sprinkling, 
declare immersion the safest mode." 

From this statement of the facts of history in regard to 
the rise of aspersion, etc., for baptism, it is clearly shown 
that the first advocates of this departure from the divine 
pattern, did not plead the example of the apostles, or the 
Scriptures, to justify their course. Aspersion was plead in 
cases of necessity, where the subject was in danger of death. 
It was, therefore, the idea of baptismal salvation which 
produced the change from immersion to perfusion, pour- 
ing, and finally, to sprinkling, w r hich was established by 
law, at Ravenna, in thirteen hundred and eleven. 

But, to return to the case of Xovatian : there is no reli- 
ance to be placed in the charges of Cornelius against No- 
vatian, because it is known that he accused him with many 
things of which he was not guilty. Novatian was the first 
at Rome to make a successful stand against the corruptions 



324 The ^Novatian (Period. 

advocated by the popular party of which Cornelius was 
the head. Cornelius, in his malice, tried to invalidate the 
character, religion, baptism, and ministry, of Novatian. In 
his letters, to Fabius, bishop of Antioch, he called Novatian 
a " malicious beast ■"; and he accuses him of " villainy/' 
"fraud and treachery "; that Satan instigated "his faith " 
and entered into him, "and dwelt a long time." Corne- 
lius accused Novatian of drunkenness and blasphemy, 
with many other dreadful crimes. But as all those charges 
concerning his morality are known to be utterly false, is 
there no room to doubt the testimony of Cornelius concern- 
ing the aspersion of Novatian ? Must we take the state- 
ments of a known fabricator of falsehoods ? But, granting 
that it is true that Novatian had no baptism at all, this 
has nothing to do with the succession of those who were 
nicknamed Novatians; for they, as a religious community, 
neither received their baptism nor origin from Novatian. 
The want of baptism in Novatian can no more affect the 
succession of the Novatians than the " alien " immersion 
of a Baptist preacher can affect the Baptist succession. 
The Novatians did not practice aspersion at all. They 
were so strict in regard to the purity of baptism that they 
would not receive the immersions performed by the popular 
party. They did not regard the corrupt churches as 
churches of Christ, and, therefore, they considered their 
immersions as invalid. 

Fifth : And again, it is evident that the Novatians pos- 
sessed the Baptist peculiarity of holding equality in privi- 
lege in the transaction of church business. This has been 
a cherished point of doctrine with the Baptists in all ages. 
The usurpation of lordship over the churches, by ministers 
in the corrupt party, developed itself gradually in the 



Equality among the JVovatians. 325 

third century. Mr. Milman, in his history of Christi- 
anity ; speaking of this period, says: "But each church 

was still a separate and independent com- 

•x vk >k >k mi i i j? i • ,' i Milmavus His. of 
munity. * * * I he level oi ecclesiastical ~, . . ^^ r 
f , . Chnst } p. 446. 

or Episcopal dignity gradually broke up; 
some bishops emerged into a higher rank ; the single com- 
munity over which the bishop originally presided, grew 
into the aggregation of several communities, and founded 
a diocese ; the Metropolitan rose above the ordinary bishop, 
the patriarch assumed a rank above the Metropolitan, till 
at length, in the regularly graduated scale, the primacy of 
Rome was asserted, and submitted to by the humble and 
obsequious West." This quotation throws light upon two 
points; first, that in this period each church w T as still a 
separate and independent community; and, second, that 
it was the Catholic party which gradually broke up the 
level of ecclesiastical dignity, and finally culminated into 
what is known as the primacy of Rome. There is no evi- 
dence that the Novatians deviated from this principle of 
equality. It was so fully developed, that in the former 
period religious equality prevailed among the churches ; 
and it being generally admitted that the same purity of 
discipline prevailed among the Novatians, therefore we 
are safe in the conclusion that they maintained the same 
doctrine of equality in church affairs. 

Sixth: There will be no difficulty whatever in settling 
the point, that the Novatian churches were strict in their 
communion. In fact, this was the general complaint of 
their enemies against them, that they were unreasonably 
strict in their terms of communion. Mos- 

heim remarks of the Novatians, that: M °^ m ^ 

p. 74. 
" This sect can not be charged with having 



326 The JVovatian (Period. 

corrupted the doctrine of Christianity by their opinions ; 
their crime was, that, by the unreasonable severity of their 
discipline, they gave occasion to the most deplorable di- 
visions, and made an unhappy schism in the church." 
The Novatians were so strict in their discipline that they 
would not admit, under any circumstances, to their com- 
munion those of their own members who relapsed into 
idolatry, in times of persecution. They would not receive 
to their communion immersed persons from other parties 
without " re-baptism"; and consequently they obtained 
from their enemies the odious name of Anabaptists. On 

this point, Mr. Orchard truly says : 
S. Bapt. Review, a Where there is Anabaptism there can 
p. 119. 

be no open communion." The Novatians 

"re-baptized ; " therefore, they were strict in their terms of 
communion. The historic proof is overwhelming, that the 
Novatians possessed the Baptist peculiarity of restricted 
communion. 

Lastly, there is no difficulty in showing that the No- 
vatians possessed the peculiarity of being persecuted and 
every-where spoken against. On the subject of the perse- 
cutions of the Novatians, Mr. Orchard says: " Innocent 
wrote many letters to various bishops, con- 
re . ap . is., t a i n i n g £} ie ru j es f discipline in his church, 

plainly with the intention of establishing 
uniformity. This uniformity could not be imposed on the 
Novatianists, nor would they receive his views on child- 
ren's baptism and communion ; they, consequently, became 
the object of his aversion. Another means of awaken- 
ing the Catholic prelates' anger, was re-baptizing. * * * 
In the fourth Lateran council, canons were made to banish 
them as heretics, and these canons were supported by an 



JJovatians (Persecuted. 327 

edict, in 413, issued by the emperors Theodosius and 
Honorious, declaring that all persons re-baptized, and the 
re-baptizers, should be both punished with death. Ac- 
cordingly, Albanus, a zealous minister, with others, was 
punished with death, for re-baptizing." It should be ob- 
served that the persecutions during the former period were 
by the pagans ; but the persecutions of the Novatians were 
by professed Christians. No sooner was the adulterous 
union formed between church and state, by Constantine, 
than persecution began to be w T aged in the name of Chris- 
tianity. In the fourth century the Novatians were perse- 
cuted under the Arian emperor, Yalens. It made no dif- 
ference whether the orthodox Catholics, or Arians, had the 
ascendency — they both alike persecuted the hated Nova- 
tians. Mr. Jones, the historian, says: "But the conduct 
of Valens was not regulated by the strict 
rules of equity ; for in his persecutions he 0? ^ ' is ' y 
included the Novatians, whose churches he 
commanded to be shut up, and their pastors banished, 
although, so far as I can perceive, they took no part what- 
ever in the squabbles that existed between the contending 
factions." Though the Novatians were bitterly persecuted 
by all parties who possessed the power, yet, when they 
were tolerated, they used their influence to relieve those 
who had persecuted them. They never persecuted others. 
The council of Nice convened in the year 325, in order to 
settle the Arian controversy. The Emperor Constantine, 
who called this council, decided that its decrees were in- 
fallible; for he said: "What they had 
decreed was the will of God, and that the Jon ^ 7 Ch ' Eis '' 
agreement of so great a number of such 
bishops was by inspiration of the Holy Ghost/- So Con- 



328 The JVovatian (Period. 

stantine banished, and persecuted in various ways, the No- 
vatians, and others, for refusing to submit to the decrees of 
the council of Nice. It is admitted by all historians that 
the Novatians were peculiarly hated, persecuted, and every- 
where spoken against, because of their faith and practice; 
therefore, the Novatians possessed, in an eminent degree, 
that characteristic which points out the Baptists as perse- 
cuted and every-where spoken against. 

We have now seen that the Baptist peculiarities were 
possessed by the Novatians, and as these are Bible pecu- 
liarities, we therefore conclude, that the Novatians form a 
part of the succession of Scriptural churches against which 
the gates of hell have never prevailed. The Novatians 
possessed those peculiar marks, in all that is essential to 
church organization, w T hich would now identify them with 
the Baptists. The Donatists of Africa possessed the same 
peculiarities with the Novatians, and, on this account, may 
be called the Novatians of Africa. And in regard to the 
Baptist character of these people, Osiander, a writer 
of the sixteenth century, affirms : " That 
„ 99 ^ our modern Anabaptists were the same 

with the Donatists of old. And Fuller, in 
his Ecclesiastical History (1. 5, p. 229), saith, that the 
Anabaptists are the Donatists, new dipt. Bullinger saith, 
the Donatists and the Anabaptists held the same opin- 
ions (Lib. 5, fol. 216, 222,) of baptism." 

Other authorities might be introduced in confirmation 
of the Baptist character of the Novatians, but it is wholly 
unnecessary. It is absolutely impossible for any other 
denomination in Christendom to claim, with any show of 
truth, identity with the Novatians, either in doctrine or 
history. The Novatian period brings us down to the 



The Great Apostasy. 329 

middle of the fifth century, four hundred and fifty years 
after the birth of Christ. 



Section II. — The great apostasy. 

" Let no man deceive you by any means : for that day 
shall not come, except there come a falling 
away first, and that man of sin be revealed, 
the son of perdition • who opposeth and exalteth himself 
above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so 
that he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing 
himself that he is God." Some have supposed, from the 
foregoing passage of Scripture, that the falling away had 
reference to the apostasy or falling away of the Church of 
Christ, and, therefore, they come to the conclusion that the 
Church of Rome was once the true Church of Christ ! 
This doctrine, which teaches that the gates of hell have 
prevailed against the Church of Christ, has opened the 
flood-gate for the introduction of a host of errors. When 
we take the position that the kingdom of Jesus Christ has 
been subverted, and become the kingdom of Antichrist, 
w r e are compelled to become skeptics, or infidels, concern- 
ing the promises of Jesus Christ for the perpetuity of his 
church ; and if his church has apostatized, and become 
the kingdom of the Devil, then Jesus Christ was a false 
prophet, and, therefore, an impostor. But we must believe 
that the heavens would sooner pass away, and the pillars 
of the earth be removed, than that one jot or tittle of the 
words of Christ should fail. This prediction of the apos- 
tle concerning the falling away, had no reference what- 
ever to the falling away of the true church or kingdom 
of Jesus Christ ; it only had reference to the falling away 



330 The JVovatian (Period. 

of individual congregations and persons from the king- 
dom of Christ. This is in keeping with the testimony 
of John, where he says, concerning "Antichrists," that: 
" They went out from us, but they were not 
of us ; for if they had been of us, they would 
no doubt have continued with us : but they went out, that 
they might be made manifest that they w r ere not all of us." 
These Antichrists went out; but if the church had aposta- 
tized, then there would have been no going out. It has 
ever been the policy of Satan, in attempting to thwart the 
designs of Heaven, to institute a counterfeit to the various 
points of divine worship. When Jesus Christ ordained 
true apostles, the Devil ordained false apostles ; w r hen Jesus 
ordained true ministers, the Devil ordained his ministers, 
who transformed themselves into ministers of righteous- 
ness; when Jesus Christ established his ordinances, Satan 
also established counterfeit ordinances ; when Jesus Christ 
established his church, Satan proceeded to establish coun- 
terfeit churches. And by this satanic policy of counter- 
feiting, the Devil has done more to impede the cause of 
Christ than by any other means which he has ever in- 
vented. And in order the better to open the way for every 
new invention in the way of church organization which he 
may wish to establish, he has induced the world to believe 
that the church established by Christ has apostatized. 
And now we have hundreds of so-called churches in the 
world, claiming to be either the church or branches of the 
Church of Christ. Old papal Eome stands forth at the 
head of the list in all her pontifical pride, and claims to 
be the mother and mistress of all other churches; and 
around her are gathered her brood of mystic daughters, 
who are trying to pluck the laurels from the brow of their 






(Rome not to be (Reformed. 331 

mother ; and, at the same time, other newly-hatched eccle- 
siastical fledglings are attempting to soar into the heavens 
to divide dignity and honors with their more ancient 
rivals. 

Every few years gives birth to some mighty intellectual 
giant whose powers are brought into requisition in at- 
tempting to purify some of the polluted streams of Popery, 
and thereby prepare a suitable river of salvation. They 
are trying to reform, either the old mother of abomina- 
tions, or some one of her polluted daughters, in order to 
prepare a bride for Jesus Christ. If they were not wholly 
skeptical in regard to the perpetuity of the kingdom of 
Christ, they would not dare to attempt the reformation 
of any part of Antichrist. The reformers of false churches 
have undertaken a work to which God has not called them. 
They have run without being sent. They had just as 
well attempt to purify the waters of the Dead Sea. The 
folly and presumption of such men have certainly reached 
the superlative degree, from the fact that they ought to 
know that if the kingdom that Christ set up has aposta- 
tized and come to nothing, certainly their reformations will 
fare no better. They have overlooked the prophetic dec- 
larations concerning the fate of mystic Babylon — the 
Church of Rome ; for, instead of being reformed, she is 
doomed by the Word of God to utter destruction. Her 
body is to be burned with fire, and her overthrow is to be 
as when a mighty mill-stone is cast with violence into 
the sea. 

The Church of Rome, as an organization, has never 
been, is not now, and never will be a church of Christ. 
She did not originate with the Church of Christ. She is 
of her father, the Devil. It is very important, however, 



332 The J\fovatian (Period. 

with the Protestant churches, to show that the Romish 
Church either has been, or is now, the true Church of 
Christ visible ; otherwise all their own claims to be true 
churches would be null and void, as emanating from the 
corrupt fountain of a false church. Mr. J. L. Waller shows 
the utter fallacy of the claims to have reformed the Church 
of Rome, as follows : " We take the Re- 

ap is s no r °- f oriners a t their word ; and from this 
testants, pp. 16, 17. . . 

favorite passage of theirs, we insist that 

the Romanish Church was never the Church of Christ 
visible, and was never to be reformed. The first appearance 
this church makes in prophetic vision, she bears the name 
of, * Mystery, Babylon the Great, the Mother of Harlots 
and abominations of the earth/ She reels, intoxicated 
with the blood of the saints. She has no prior history. 
The prophet saw her beginning ; the name she then bore ; 
he contemplated her career, and beheld her overthrow. 
She was the same miserable, cruel, unholy, drunken ecclesi- 
astical bawd, from first to last. There is no intimation to 
justify the conclusion that ' the bride, the Lamb's wife/ 
ever degenerated into the ' whore of Babylon/ making all 
nations drunk with the wine of her fornication ; and much 
less is there anything in this chapter to favor the conclusion 
that 'Babylon the Great/ by a mere change of the exte- 
rior appearances, is to be transformed into the i New Jeru- 
salem/ On the contrary, John was permitted to see her 
destruction, like a great mill-stone cast into the sea, and 
to hear the shouts of glad angels, saying : i Babylon the 
Great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitations of 
Devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of 
every unclean and hateful bird/ Does this teach refor- 
mation? Is this the purgation which is to transmute the 



The Great Apostasy. 333 

Romish Church into apostolic purity ? In short, reforma- 
tion is nowhere inculcated in the Scriptures. It is a 
work to which God has called no man or set of men. 
Those who engage in it, run without being sent ; and are 
laboring for an end which, if attained, would discredit 
the predictions of the prophets, and set at naught many 
of the most positive declarations of the Almighty." 

Instead of vainly attempting to reform this monstrous 
system of iniquity, God has commanded all his saints to 
" Come out of her, my people, that ye be not 
partakers, of her sins, and that ye receive 
not of her plagues." It w T as found, in the former period, 
that several fundamental errors made their appearance. 
These errors, — baptismal salvation, infant baptism, the 
hierarchy, etc., — paved the way for the overt act of apos- 
tasy which occurred in the middle of the third century. 
After every means had failed to reclaim the party — 
churches and individuals — which had already embraced 
the forementioned heresies, in the year 251, the faithful 
churches and brethren declared non-fellow T ship with the 
corrupt party. They had, step by step, departed from the 
simplicity of Bible worship, until many of them had 
passed the boundary of the kingdom of Christ. They 
had apostatized, or gone out from the fellowship of the 
true churches, which remained steadfast in the support of 
the ordinances as they were delivered. This is the begin- 
ning of that great apostasy which finally assumed the huge 
proportions of Antichrist. And after the apostasy, or 
falling Stway, had occurred, in the jear 251, the corrupt 
interest made fearful strides toward that fearful darkness 
and idolatry which characterized Eome through the dark 
ages. It is usually asserted by historians, that the union 



334 The J\ r ovatian (Period. 

of church and state occurred in the year 31 2, under the 
Emperor Constantine. This statement is not strictly cor- 
rect. The union effected by Constantine, in the year 31 2, 
was between the corrupt church and the state, or empire. 
The true Church of Christ has never entered into an 
adulterous union with the civil power. After the con- 
solidation of what is usually called the church with the 
civil dominion, under Constantine as the head of both 
church and state, the progress of corruption was frightful. 
On this point Mr. Dowling says : " Soon after Constan- 
tine professed conversion to Christianity, 

ow tngs is.oj ^ e undertook to remodel the government 
liomanist, p. SI. . ° 

.• of the church, so as to make it conform as 

much as possible to the government of the state. Hence 
the origin of the dignities of patriarchs, exarchs, arch- 
bishops, canons, prebendaries, etc., intended by the Em- 
peror to correspond with the different secular offices and 
dignities connected with the civil administration of the 
empire." The same writer further remarks : " From this 
time onward, the progress of priestly dom- 
mation and tyranny was tar more rapid 
than in any previous age. The lofty title of Patriarch was 
assumed by the bishops of Eome, Alexandria, Antioch, 
and Jerusalem, and also of Constantinople, after the remo- 
val of the seat of empire to that city : claiming, according 
to Bingham (Antiquities, B. II, ch. 17), 'the right to or- 
dain all the metropolitans of their own diocese ; to call dio- 
cesan synods, and to preside over them; to receive appeals 
from metropolitan and provincial synods ; to censure me- 
tropolitans and their suffragan bishops ; to pronounce ab- 
solutions upon great criminals, and to be absolute and 
independent, one of an other/ " And thus we might con- 



The Great Apostasy. 335 

tinue to cite authorities to show the increasing corruption 
of that false church which originated from the apostasy, 
after the middle of the third century. It is the history of 
this corrupt antichristian apostasy which is given to the 
world as the history of the church ! It is altogether a mis- 
nomer to call the apostasy the Church of Christ, in any 
sense : it is the synagogue of Satan. As an organization, 
it had its origin in the third century, out of the apostasy 
from the truth. We will note the progress of this mystery 
of iniquity in the next period. It is evident from the 
Word of God, and church history, that the true Church is 
not to be found enveloped in the apostasy with Antichrist; 
we must, therefore, look for the kingdom of Christ some- 
where else. • 



336 The Waldensean (Period. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

THE WALDENSEAN PERIOD— 1260 YEAES. 

1. The Prophetic History of the Church During this 

Period. 

2. The Peculiarities applied to the Waldenses. 

3. False Churches which arose During this Period. 

Section I. — The prophetic history of the church 

DURING THIS PERIOD. 

"And to the woman were given two wings of a great 
eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, 
into her place, where she is nourished for a 
time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the ser- 
pent." I do not claim that the true churches are known 
in history by the name Waldenses during the entire period 
of twelve hundred and sixty years; but they were called 
Waldenses the most of this time; and it is generally admit- 
ted that the churches which became known as Waldenses 
in the eleventh century, existed previously in the valleys 
of the Alps, with the same leading characteristics; and 
that the same class of people existed in the valleys, as the 
true witnesses of Christ, during the twelve hundred and 
sixty years. I will, therefore, take the privilege, as sev- 
eral historians have done, of applying the term Waldenses 
to the entire prophetic period of the preservation of the 
woman in the wilderness, or during the sackcloth testimony 
of the Church. 

Nearly all historians are agreed that the true church, 



Flight of the Woman into the Wilderness. 337 

under the symbol of a woman, was driven into the wilder- 
ness after the great apostasy, where she was "nourished 
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the 
serpent " ; and it is understood that a time is one year, times 
two years, and a half time, one half of a year ; so that the 
time, times, and half time, are three and a half prophetic 
years ; and as three and a half years, in the Scripture com- 
putation of time, make twelve hundred and sixty days, — ; 
and in prophecy a day stands for a year, — therefore, we 
have the period of tivelve hundred and sixty years as the 
wilderness period of the Church. And that we are not 
mistaken in the period, is shown from the following : " And 

the woman fled into the wilderness, where - 

Rev. 12: 6. 
she hath a place prepared of God, that they 

should feed her there a thousand two hundred and three 
score days." 

Thus, we have the twelve hundred and sixty days, a 
day for a year, as the explanation of the time, times, and 
half a time. In entering upon this obscure period of church 
history, it is very important that we give heed to the pro- 
phetic word as a light that shineth in a dark place. Some 
have very erroneously supposed that the wilderness period 
of the church was a time in which the church was in a 
state of apostasy, and that the flight into the wilderness 
referred to the apostasy or corruption of the church. But 
the very opposite is true; the flight into the wilderness was 
not an apostasy or corruption of the church ; but it was the 
retirement of the church before the apostate and corrupt 
power. It should be observed, that the woman fled to "a 
place prepared of God," and was there preserved " from 
the face of the serpent " ; but this would not have been the 
case had she gone into pollution in the foul embraces of 



338 The Waldensean (Period. 

the dragon power. I am fully satisfied that the Walden- 
sean period of the church, during her retirement in the 
wilderness, is the purest part of her history since the 
apostolic age. In the wilderness she had less inducements 
to conformity with the world. She was persecuted by the 
dragon while she prophesied in sackcloth during this wil- 
derness period. When it is said, the woman, or church, 
fled into the wilderness, the term wilderness in this proph- 
ecy indicates more than the locality in a waste and desert 
country. It also refers, doubtless, to the darkness, ob- 
scurity, or barrenness, of the dark ages. Owing to the 
relentless persecution waged against the church by the 
dragon, very few materials for church history, except from 
enemies, has been preserved. I understand that the flight 
of the woman into the wilderness has reference to the re- 
tirement of the main body of the Novatians from Italy 
about the beginning of the fifth century ; and also to the 
retirement of the church into obscurity, so as to be lost 
sight of, as the true church, by the world and the great 
mass of historians. Any church whose history has not 
been involved in obscurity and doubt, can lay no claims 
whatever to be the true church which fled into the wilder- 
ness. The fact that the world did not recognize the claims 
of the Waldenses, is no evidence whatever that they were 
not the witnesses for Christ. In the time of Christ and 
the apostles, the entire world, both Jew and Gentile, ex- 
cept a few, repudiated the claims of the kingdom of Jesus 
Christ. And even at the present time the world rejects 
with contempt the claims of the true church. 

Historians differ somewhat in regard to the precise time 
when the church made her flight into the wilderness. Some 
think it occurred in the time of Constantine the great, 



jYovatians (Retire into the Valleys. 339 

about the year 325 ; others think it took place about the year 
270, and some think it occurred at an earlier date. It is 
admitted that there were settlements of true Christians 
formed in the valleys of the Alps in very early times, prob- 
ably in the apostolic age; and others emigrated, from time 
to time, under the various persecutions, and took shelter 
in these mountain retreats; but from all the light which 
I can gather, I am satisfied that the true date of the flight 
of the woman into the wilderness was not before the year 
413, when banishment and death was decreed against the 
Novatians on account of their "re-baptizing" those who 
came from the Catholics. This view~ is sustained by Mr. 

Orchard, as follows: "In the fourth Lat- 

M 1 . i . i Orch. Bapt. His.. 

eran council, canons were made to banish nri l 

. . p. 60. 

them (the ISTovatians) as heretics, and these 

canons were supported by an edict, in 413, issued by the 
emperors Theodosius and Honorious, declaring that all 
persons re-baptized, and the re-baptizers, should be both 
punished w r ith death. Accordingly, Albanus, a zealous 
minister, with others, were punished with death, for re- 
baptizing. The edict was probably obtained by the influ- 
ence of Augustine, who could endure no rival, nor would 
he bear with any who questioned the virtue of his rites, 
or the sanctity of his brethren, or the soundness of the 
Catholic creed; and these points being disputed by the No- 
vatianists and Donatists, two powerful and extensive bodies 
of dissidents in Italy and Africa, they were consequently 
made to feel the weight of his influence. These combined 
modes of oppression led the faithful to abandon the cities, 
and seek retreats in the country, which they did, particu- 
larly in the valleys of Piedmont, the inhabitants of which 
began to be called Waldenses." About this time a series 



340 The Waldensean (Period. 

of persecutions were inaugurated against the Novatians in 
Italy, and they soon retired in vast numbers into the val- 
leys of Piedmont and other places of security ; so, we may 
safely conclude that the woman, the church, was in the 
wilderness as early as four hundred and twenty-jive or six. 
These persecutions are stated as follows : " In 412 the Bap- 
tists were banished as heretics. In 413 
Orch. Bapt. His., T . , -, , , r -, . 

ai , Innocent sent letters of advice to various 

p. 61; note. 

ministers. In the same year, the Baptists, 
for re-baptizing, were sentenced to death. In 416 a coun- 
cil at Mela accursed all those who denied forgiveness to 
accompany infant baptism, and in 418 a council at Car- 
thage enforced the same curse." And not long after the 
inauguration of this dreadful series of persecutions against 
the Novatians, says Mr. Orchard, " These holy people now 
retired from public notice." 

We may safely commence the Waldensean period as 
early as the year four hundred and twenty-six. It is true, 
that all the Novatians had not departed from Italy ; but 
the main body of these people had retired to the valleys 
of the Alps and other places of retreat. It must be 
remembered that a remnant of these people still remained 
in Italy ; and a succession of them continued, for centu- 
ries, under the name Paterines. As already intimated, 
the prominent facts concerning the flight of the church, 
are brought to view in the twelfth chapter of Revelations, 
by means of the woman as a symbol of the church. The 
reader is requested to pause and read that chapter. It is 

said, in verse seventh : "And there was war 
Mev. 12: 7-9. 

in heaven : Michael and his angels fought 

against the dragon ; and the dragon fought and his an- 
gels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found 



JJovatians (Retire into the Valleys. 341 

any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, 
that old serpent, called the Devil and Satan, which de- 
ceiveth the whole world : he w r as *cast out into the earth, 
and his angels were cast out with him." This "way in 
heaven" probably has reference to the conflict between 
Jesus Christ — "Michael" — at the head of his angels, the 
true ministers, on one hand, and the Devil as the head of 
his angels, false ministers, on the other. The Devil, at the 
head of the dragon power, hoped to subvert the kingdom 
of Jesus Christ, by the change of the form of church 
government, the change of the ordinances, and the estab- 
lishment of his " angels," or ministers over the churches. 
On the other hand, Jesus, as the head of his church, led 
on his "angels," true ministers, to the terrible conflict 
with the dragon and his angels. The term heaven, here, 
can not mean the place of rest; but it may, in this place, 
refer to the elevated position which the church occupies 
as the light of the world. This war was in the religious 
elements, or religious heaven occupied by the church. I 
am of opinion that this " war " points out the struggle be- 
tween the true and false ministers about the time of the 
beginning of the Novatian period. And the casting out 
of the " Devil and his angels " very likely refers to the 
total and final rejection of the corrupt and popular party, 
with all their ordinances and church claims, by those who 
were called Kovatians. These false ministers were in 
nominal fellowship with the true ministers till the di- 
vision^, called the Novatian rupture, but then they were 
"cast out" from this fellowship by the true churches. 
Their being cast out into the earth, may have allusion to 
the total abandonment, on the part of those that followed 
the dragon, of all correct principles of church organiza- 



342 The Waldensean Period. 

tion, and the union of the corrupt church and state. Cer- 
tainly this union of church and state with all the Romish 
idolatries has been a " Wo to the inhabitants of the earth 
and the sea." I am driven to these conclusions, from the 
fact that the "war in heaven" and the casting out of the 
dragon comes before the flight of the woman. And the 
drawing down of "the third part of the stars of heaven" 
by the tail of the dragon, doubtless has reference to the 
departure of the third part of the ministry which followed 
the dragon when he was cast down to the earth. 

We now proceed to sum up the prophetic proofs which 
show that the true church was preserved during the 
wilderness period of her history. 

First: As already seen, she was fed in the wilderness 
for twelve hundred and sixty years, from the face of 
the dragon. But if the church apostatized, or became 
extinct, this Scripture could not be true; but as this 
prophecy is true, therefore the succession or perpetuity of 
the church, through this dark period, is established be- 
yond the possibility of a doubt. 

Second: The Lord said by the angel : "And I will give 

„ „ power unto mv two witnesses, and they shall 

Rev. 11: 3. ^ . . J . , , , \ . 

prophesy a thousand two hundred and three 

score days clothed in sackcloth." If these witnesses refer 

to the testimony borne by the church in the wilderness, 

and this is generally believed, then the church remained 

firm in her prophesying or teaching through the^entire 

period of her stay in the wilderness. 

Third : It is affirmed by Daniel the prophet, that : " In 

the days of these kings shall the God of 

heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never 

be destroyed ; and the kingdom shall not be left to other 



The Church in the Wilderness. 343 

people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these 
kingdoms, and it shall stand forever/' And as this pro- 
phecy is admitted to refer to the kingdom or church of 
Christ, it, therefore, sustains the doctrine of church suc- 
cession or perpetuity. This is also illustrated by the stone 
which symbolized the kingdom, that smote the image and 
broke it to pieces, and finally " became a great mountain, 
and filled the whole earth." The stone kingdom did not 
become extinct; neither has it been given to other people; 
but " it shall stand forever." 

Fourth : Once more ; the Savior himself declared, that 
" Upon this rock I will build my church ; and the gates 
of hell shall not prevail against it." No one who believes 
the Word of God can reasonably doubt the existence 
of the true church ever since it was first established. But 
the same prophetic Word which teaches the perpetuity of 
the church, also teaches that the church went into ob- 
scurity, where she remained twelve hundred and sixty 
years. This doctrine is also taught in the prophetic Song 
of Solomon, which points out the tender relations existing 
between Jesus Christ, the bridegroom, and the church, 
his bride, by the intimate relations existing between the 
husband and wife. Jesus, the bridegroom, speaking to 
the bride, his church, says: "Oh my dove, 

thou art in the cleft of the rock, in the secret ' on ^ °x ,° i °" 

. t mon > 2: 14. 

places of the stairs, let me see thy counte- 
nance, let me hear thy voice : for sweet is thy voice, and 
thy countenance is comely." This tender expression of 
the bridegroom, representing the bride as in the cleft of 
the rock, in the secret places of the stairs, doubtless points 
out the history of the church during her wilderness ob- 
scurity, while secreted in the cleft or stairs of the Alpine 



344 The Waldensean (Period. 

mountains. The bridegroom also represents her as his 
" undefiled," fair one, which shows that the church re- 
mained uncorrupted and pure during her wilderness testi- 
mony. And the Savior also represents her as sustaining 
the same character, when she comes out of the wilderness ; 
for he says : " Rise up, my love, my fair 
ongojoomon, on ^ ^^ come away : for, lo, the winter is 
passed, and the rain is over and gone ; the 
flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing of 
bird£ is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our 
land; the fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the 
vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my 
love, my fair one, and come away." Thus w r e have the 
tender expression of the bridegroom calling to his beloved, 
the church, after the fearful winter of darkness and perse- 
cution had poured forth frightful storms upon her for 
twelve hundred and sixty years, to rise up and come away 
out of the wilderness, where her power may again be felt 
throughout the world. 

Again : We have the inspired description of the bride 
as she comes out of the wilderness. The question is pro- 
pounded : " Who is this that cometh up 
Song of Solomon. » ,-, .-.j -, . , , 

8- 5 d 6- 10 * rom ™e wilderness, leaning upon her be- 
loved ? " " Who is she that looketh forth 
as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and ter- 
rible as an army with banners ? " The answer would 
, come, she is the bride, the Lamb's wife, to whom had been 
given the wings of the great eagle, with which to fly into 
the wilderness to the place prepared of God, and where 
she had ever leaned upon the strong arm of her divine 
lover, who leads her forth from the wilderness as fair as 
the moon, as clear as the sun, and as terrible as an army 



The Church in the Wilderness. 345 

with banners. Do these Scriptures teach the apostasy, 
pollution, and disgrace, of the bride of Christ ? No ; for 
the bridegroom has pledged himself to be with her alway, 
even unto the end of the world ; and, if it were necessary, 
he would call twelve legions of angels to her rescue at any 
moment. 

Because the world, in its blindness and superstition, has 
failed to see and recognize the bride, the lamVs wife, during 
her stay in the wilderness, shall it be said that she ceased to 
exist during that time? As w^ell might it be said of the 
train which enters the mountain tunnel and comes out in 
full trim, that it ceased to exist because it was out of sight 
for awhile, or that it must have been off of the track all the 
time that it w^as not in view ! But when the train emerges 
from the tunnel, on time, with the same officers, with the 
same passengers, with the same freight, and w T ith the same 
characteristic brands, w 7 e have undisputed evidence that it 
is the same train which entered the tunnel, and that it had 
been on the track all the time, or it would not have ap- 
peared on timew r ith the same equipments; and especially, 
if it had been controlled by an infallible conductor, who af- 
firmed that the train had been preserved through the moun- 
tain. And likewise, as the church came out of the wilder- 
ness on time, according to the divine schedule, with the 
same officers, with the same passengers, with the same 
freight, and with the same characteristic marks, and having 
been controlled by the same infallible conductor, we may, 
therefore, safely conclude that the church has neither been 
destroyed nor off of the track of truth during the wilderness 
period of her history. But the church has not been totally 
out of view during this period ; her light has shined out 
of the clefts of the rock, and her countenance has beamed 



346 The Waldensean (Period. 



forth from the secret places of the stairs all the time. And 
with equal propriety it might be affirmed that the Atlan- 
tic telegraph cable was broken into a thousand fragments, 
or that hundreds of miles of it are entirely wanting, be- 
cause it is invisible to the eye, as to affirm that the church 
was destroyed because it was hid from some ! Bat when it 
is known that both ends of the cable are visible, and that 
the same electric fluid passes from one extremity to the other, 
no one doubts the succession of the Atlantic cable. And 
when we consider that the church entered the wilder- 
ness bearing the impress of the Holy Spirit, and emerged 
from it bearing the same impress, we have the evidence of 
her 'perpetuity. But we are not left in total darkness with 
regard to the wilderness period of the church. As already 
seen, we have the light of the prophetic Word, as the pillar 
of fire by night, which has pointed out the history of the 
everlasting kingdom through the wilderness period. It is 
true, that like the ancient pillar of fire, it is light to spir- 
itual Israel, but darkness to the spiritual Egyptians, the 
enemies of the church. If all uninspired history was a 
total blank, or swallowed up in the gulf of oblivion, we 
have a perfect right to span the chasm with the prophetic 
Word, and boldly affirm that the gates of hell have not 
prevailed against the church of Jesus Christ. But besides 
the inspired Word, we have the testimony of friends, and 
even foes, to the perpetuity of the kingdom of God through 
all this dark period of the world. The history of the 
church may be traced by the dismal light of her martyr 
fires, and the blood of her witnesses, which has been poured 
forth like rivers in the desert. The blood-thirsty foes of 
the church have borne, with fiendish hate, their testimony 
to the true church in their accusations and charges against 



(peculiarities applied to the Waldenses. 347 

her members. Truly, God has caused the wrath of man to 
praise him. Even old Rome herself has been constrained 
to bear, through her executioners, grim and bloody testi- 
mony to the truth of the claims of the suffering saints who 
died as members of the true kingdom of God. 



Section II. — The peculiarities applied to the 

WALDEXSE8. 

a And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she 
hath a place prepared of God, that they 
should feed her there a thousand two hun- 
dred and three score days." 

Before w T e proceed to apply the Baptist peculiarities to 
the Waldenses, it may not be amiss to state again that the 
same class of people who were called Waldenses in the 
valleys of the Alps, w T ere called by other names in other 
countries. But, says Mr. Jones: "All these branches, 
however, sprang from one common stock, and were ani- 
mated by the same religious and moral principles." We 
have not space in the present work to vindicate every 
branch of the Waldensean family from the slanderous 
charges which their enemies have preferred against them ; 
but we desire to apply the Bible peculiarities to the main 
body of the Waldenses who inhabited the valleys of the 
Alps, or were in fellowship with them. But before we 
proceed to this, it may be interesting to furnish the reader 
with a description of the valleys of Piedmont. 

Mr. Jones gives the following description : " The prin- 
cipality of Piedmont derives its name 

from the circumstance of its being; situ- or !™ **"' 

to p. 188. 

ated at the foot of the Alps, a prodigious 



348 The Waldensean (Period. 

range of mountains, the highest indeed in Europe, and 
which divide Italy from France, Switzerland, and Ger- 
many. It is bounded on the east by the duchies of Milan 
and Montferrat; on the south by the county of Nice and 
the territory of Genoa ; on the west by France, and on the 
north by Savoy. In former times it constituted a part of 
Lombardy, but more recently has been subject to the King 
of Sardinia, who takes up his residence at Turin, the cap- 
ital of this province, and one of the finest cities in Europe. 
It is an extensive tract of rich and fruitful valleys, embo- 
somed in mountains which are encircled again with moun- 
tains higher than they, intersected with deep and rapid 
rivers, and exhibiting in strong contrast the beauty and 
plenty of Paradise in sight of frightful precipices, wide 
lakes of ice, and stupendous mountains of never-wasting 
snow. The whole country is an interchange of hill and 
dale, mountain and valley — traversed with four principal 
rivers — viz : the Po, the Tanaro, the Stura, and the Dora, 
besides about eight and twenty rivulets, great and small, 
which, winding their course in different directions, con- 
tribute to the fertility of the valleys, and make them re- 
semble a watered garden. The principal valleys are Aosta 
and Susa on the north, Stura on the south, and, in the in- 
terior of the country, Lucerna, Angrogna, Raccapiatti, 
Pramol, Perosa, and S. Martino. The valley Clusone, or 
Pragela, as it is often called, was in ancient times a part 
of the province Dauphiny in France, and has been, from 
the days of Hannibal, the ordinary route of the French 
and other armies when marching into Italy. Angrogna, 
Pramol, and S. Martino, are strongly fortified by nature, 
on account of their many difficult passes, and bulwarks of 
rocks and mountains ; as if the All-wise Creator, says Sir 



The Valleys of (Piedmont. 349 

Samuel Morland, had, from the beginning, designed that 
place as a cabinet wherein to put some inestimable jewel, 
or in which to reserve many thousand souls which should 
not bow the knee before Baal." It was into these wilder- 
ness valleys, surrounded by the bulwarks of the Almighty, 
that the main body of the Church of Christ found a place 
of security from the wrath of the papal dragon. 

The Waldenses regarded themselves as having been 
directed by prophecy in their flight to these valleys. Of 
this, Mr. Robinson remarks : " Let it not 
seem romantic if we suppose that [the] ' * #) 

Waldenses, who, we know, studied the 
Revelation of John, thought themselves directed to re- 
tire, by God himself, to sequestered places ; for, by the 
New Testament prophet, he said, ( The woman fled into the 
wilderness, where she hath a place prepared of God, that 
they should feed her there a thousand two hundred and 
three score days/ " Thus it is seen that the Waldenses 
claimed no human origin ; but that they were the true 
church, symbolized by the woman which fled into the wil- 
derness. We come now to the application of the pecu- 
liarities. 

First: The Waldenses possessed the Baptist peculiarity 
of regarding Jesus Christ as their founder and head. 

This is shown from the very reproach cast upon them 
by their enemies ; for they were called Acephali, the head- 
less, because they acknowledged no human head or founder. 
Commenius, a Bohemian writer, gave the 
following account of the claims of the ^vjj^i^ 
Waldenses in 1644: "And forasmuch as p^nml^m. 
the said Waldenses declared that they had 
lawful bishops among them, and a lawful and uninterrupted 



350 The Waldensean (Period. 

succession from the apostles themselves; they very solemnly 
created three of our ministers bishops, conferring upon them 
the power of ordaining ministers, though they did not think 
fit to take upon them the name of bishops, because of the 
antichristian abuse of that name — contenting themselves 
with the name of elders." This very important passage 
shows that the Waldenses claimed an uninterrupted succes- 
sion from the apostles. Were they liable to the charge of 
"Popish succession?" By no means; for their bitter en- 
emy says that : " They affir#i that they 
Qttoted in Allies a i one are the Church of Christ, and his 
Churches of Pied- -.,'., ™ -. , , . , 

mont p. 209. disciples, ihey declare themselves to be 

the apostles' successors ; to have apostolic 
authority, and the keys of binding and loosing. They hold 
the Church of Rome to be the whore of Babylon, and that 
all that obey her are damned, especially the clergy that 
are subject to her since the time of Pope Sylvester." It 
has ever been the case, that those who have claimed the 
true succession, have borne the most faithful testimony 
against the false succession of Rome. In a Waldensean 
Confession of Faith published in 1655, article twenty- 
fourth reads as follows : " That God has 
* r ™ n s ls '°l gathered together a church in this world 
for the salvation of mankind; but she 
has but one head and foundation, which is Jesus Christ." 
And Ave have article twenty-sixth, as follows : " That this 
church can not fail, or be quite destroyed ; but that it 
will always remain." It has been already observed, that 
the same class of people called Waldenses in the valleys, 
were called Paterines, especially in Italy. This name 
dates back to the Novatians. Dr. Allix says of them, 
that : " It appears that the Berengarians, who were of the 



Waldenses held the (Bible as their (Rule. 351 

same 'stamp with Paterines, did discourse much at the 

same rate as the Waldenses did afterward. 

This is evident from Lanfranc, where he D . 2 t s urc esoj 

7 Piedmont, p. 134. 

tells us that they accused the church to 

have erred by reason of ignorance, and that the church 
remained in their party alone ; and they, with the Beren- 
garians, called the Church of Rome the congregation of 
the ivicked and the seat of Satan." Thus these early Wal- 
denses maintained that themselves alone were the true 
Church of Christ; that they had the true succession; 
and that Rome is Antichrist. The bitterest foes of the 
Waldenses have never charged them w T ith holding any 
other founder and head than Jesus Christ. We may con- 
sider it a settled point that the Waldenses possessed the 
Baptist peculiarity w T hich recognizes Jesus Christ alone 
as the founder and head of his Church. 

Second : The Baptists regard the Bible alone as their 
rule of faith and practice; and, upon examination, it will 
be found that the Waldenses also possessed the same pecu- 
liarity. No historic fact is more clearly developed than 
that the Waldenses adhered with unyielding tenacity to 
the Scriptures as their only guide in matters of religion. ■ 
iEneassylvius, who came to be Pope Pius II., gives the 
following in his account of the Waldenses : " Whatsoever 
is preached without Scripture proof, they 

account no better than fables. That the Q uoted in Dr - Al ~ 
xr t a • j. n ,1 nn . Urf* Churches of 

Holy Scriptures is of the same efficacy m Piedmontj p . 236< 

the vulgar tongue as in Latin, and accord- 
ingly they communicate and administer the sacraments in 
the vulgar tongue. They can say a great part of the Old 
and New Testament by heart." This acknowledgment 
of Pope Pius concerning this peculiar feature of the Wal- 



352 The Waldensean (Period. 



denses, is but the voice of history on this point : theiWal- 
denses claim no other standard of faith and practice ex- 
cept the Bible. To the same effect Mr. Robinson testifies 
of the Waldenses, as follows : " From the Church of Rome 

they distinguish themselves by reducing, 
Rob's Eccl. Res., ,-, -, , •, , ^ , 

461 ' as they supposed, the ancient Roman doc- 

trine to practice, by rejecting the Pope, 
the prelates, and all the religious orders, by renouncing 
councils, fathers, and all traditions, and adhering to Scrip- 
ture alone as a rule of faith, and by refusing all the papal 
ceremonies of baptism, the Lord's Supper, penance, orders, 
and so on. They are also distinguished from the latter 
Vaudois, and the reformed churches, by not using any lit- 
urgy ; by not compelling faith ; by condemning parochial 
churches ; by not taking oaths ; by allowing every person, 
even women, to teach ; by not practicing infant baptism ; 
by not admitting god-fathers ; by rejecting all sacerdotal 
habits; by denying all ecclesiastical orders of priesthood, 
papal and episcopal ; by not bearing arms ; and by their 
abhorrence of every species of persecution." Once more : 
We introduce the testimony of a minister who had been 
pastor of one of the Waldensean churches for forty years ; 
his name is Vignaux. He says of the Waldenses : " That 
the Holy Scriptures contain all that is 
tyio e in ones necessar y i our salvation, and that we 
Ch. His., p. 264. tit ill 

are called to believe only what they teach, 

without any regard to the authority of man ; that nothing 
else ought to be received by us except what God hath 
commanded." And it is an interesting fact, that the an- 
cient Waldenses were mighty in the Scriptures ; they sur- 
passed all others in Bible knowledge. Mr. Jones quotes 
Thuanus, an eminent Catholic historian, as making the 



Watdenses held the (Bible as their (Ride. 353 

following admission concerning the Waldenses : " They 
can all read and w rite. They know French 
sufficiently for the understanding of the 2 gi 
Bible and the singing of psalms. You can 
scarcely find a boy among them who can not give you an 
intelligent account of the faith which they profess." Con- 
trasting the Waldenses with Luther, Calvin, and others, 

Mr. Jones remarks that : " The reformers, 

.,-,!,,!. i ii . ii Jones' Ch. His.. 

with all their zeal and learning, were babes 00 ^ 

p. 326. 

in spiritual knowledge when compared 
with the more illiterate Waldenses, particularly in regard 
to the nature of the kingdom of Christ and its institutions, 
laws, and worship in general." Many other testimonies 
could be introduced, showing that the Waldenses not only 
professed to regard the Bible as their standard, but they 
were eminently a Bible people in point of knowledge. We 
regard the point fully established in history, that the Wal- 
denses possessed the Baptist peculiarity of holding the 
Bible alone as their rule of action in matters of religion, 
and therefore, in this respect, they w T ere Baptists. 

Third : It is evident, also, that the Waldenses preserved 
the Bible order of the commandments wdiich now charac- 
terize the Baptists ; they taught repentance, faith, baptism, 
and the Lord's Supper. That they held the Bible order 
of repentance and faith, has never been called in question. 
In fact, they were compelled to observe this order as the 
result of following the Scriptures as their only guide. 
Their views of human depravity, which they regarded as 
hereditary and total, and the operation of the Holy Spirit 
in conversion, force them upon the Bible order of holding 
repentance before the faith with the heart. In their Con- 
fession, of 1365, Article XVIII stands thus : " That this 



354 The Waldensean (Period. 

faith comes from the gracious and efficacious operations 

of the Holy Spirit, which illuminates our 
Perrin's His. of i i * i x i i ,i 

F d ' 2Q5 souls, and enables them to rely upon the 

mercy of God, to be applied by the merits 
of Jesus Christ." Every one must know that this faith, 
which is produced by the influence of the Holy Spirit upon 
the heart, must follow, in point of order, repentance ; but, 
as the order of repentance and faith has never been a 
matter of dispute in the history of the Waldenses, we pass 
to the next point, which is their teaching that faith pre- 
cedes baptism. 

This point is fully settled in chapter sixth of this book, 
where the charge that the Waldenses baptized infants, is 
fully met. I will, however, introduce some proofs in re- 
gard to the teaching of the Paterines, who were the same 
with the ancient Waldenses. Dr. Allix says : " We find 

the Berengarians exposed to the same ca- 
MLiz'sChurchesof lumnieg which were a f te rward imputed to 
Piedmont, p. 135. [ , 

the Paterines and Waldenses. This is evi- 
dent from the discourse of Guimondus, Bishop of Aversa, 
lib. I, contra Bereng.; where he accuseth them of over- 
throwing, as much as in them lay, lawfuf marriages, and 
the baptism of infants." It is true that Dr. Allix, the 
Pedobaptist historian, calls this charge against the Pate- 
rines a calumny. But it is certain that the Catholic wri- 
ters who lived at the same time and in the same countries 
with the Paterines, knew more about their practice than 
Dr. Allix, who lived in the present century. And as to 
the other charge — that these Paterines rejected lawful mar- 
riage — they did reject what Catholics call lawful marriage, 
viz : marriage by Catholic priests. Historians are agreed 
that the Catholics did charge the ancient Waldenses and 



Waldenses held the (Bible Order. 355 

Paterines — who were, really, the same class of people re- 
ligiously — with the rejection of infant baptism. 

On this point Mr. Robinson says : " As the Catholics 
of those times baptized by immersion, the 
Paterines, by what name soever they were °' 1 cc ' m) 
called — as Manicheans, Gazari, Josephists, 
Arnoldists, Passagines, Bulgarians, or Bougres — made no 
complaint of the mode of baptizing ; but, when they were 
examined, they objected vehemently against the baptism 
of infants, and condemned it as an error. They said, 
among other things, that a child knew nothing of the mat- 
ter — that he had no desire to be baptized, and was inca- 
pable of making any confession of faith, and that the 
willing and professing of another could be of no service 
to him." This quotation shows that the ancient Wal- 
denses, also called Paterines, positively opposed infant bap- 
tism; they held the Baptists' order of faith before baptism. 
It is a historic fact, that the ancient Waldenses, from the 
time of the flight of the woman into the wilderness, to the ' 
close of the twelve hundred and sixty years, bore testimony 
to the Bible order of faith prior to baptism. And as no 
one has ever dared to charge them with the gross absurd- 
ity of placing the Lord's Supper before baptism, we may 
justly conclude that the Waldenses preserved the Bible 
order of the commandments — Repentance, Faith, Baptism, 
and the Lord's Supper. Thus we find that the Waldenses 
possessed the third Baptist peculiarity, and, therefore, they 
were Baptists in this respect. 

Fourth : Baptists immerse, or bury with Christ in bap- 
tism, only those who profess to be dead to, or freed from, sin. 

We now proceed to the examination of the Waldenses as 
regards the fourth Bible peculiarity. After the rise of 



356 The Waldensean (Period. 

the Arian controversy, the Catholics originated the prac- 
tice of trine immersion. In baptism, they dipped the 
candidate once in the name of the Father, once in the name 
of the Son, and once in the name of the Holy Ghost. 

But the Waldenses adhered to the apostolic practice of 
"one baptism." They buried in baptism only once those 
who professed to be dead to sin. They were charged, it 
is true, with Anabaptism, or re-baptism, which they de- 
nied, on the ground that even the immersions performed 
by false churches were invalid, and not baptism at all. 
The suffering Waldenses, in their supplication to Emanuel, 
Duke of Savoy, used the following language : " The Turks, 

Jew T s, Saracens, and other nations, though 
His. Wald., Amer. i 1 ~> -, , 

S S U 77 ne ver so barbarous, are suffered to enjoy 

their own religion, and are constrained by 
no man to change their manner of living and worship; 
and we, who serve and worship in faith the true and Al- 
mighty God, and one true and only Sovereign, the Lord 
Jesus, and confessing one God and one baptism, — shall not 
we be suffered to enjoy the same privileges ¥* 

The point has already been fully established, that the 
Waldenses baptized none except professed believers. And 
they considered a true believer as a child of God ; there- 
fore they did not baptize sinners, the children of the Devil, 
in order to make them children of God; they baptized 
those who professed to be dead to, or freed from, sin. In 
a Confession of Faith published by the Waldenses in the 
year 1120, we have the following: "Art. XII. — We do 

believe that the sacraments are signs of the 

srae oj e ' P s , n0 ]y thing, or visible forms of the invisi- 
Muston, p. 300. v 8 > . , . ■ 

ble grace, accounting it good that the faith- 
ful sometimes use the said signs or visible forms, if it may 



Waldenses opposed (Baptismal Salvation. 357 

be done. However, we believe and hold that the above- 
said faithful may be saved without receiving the signs 
aforesaid, in case they have no place nor any means to use 
them. Abt. XIII. — We acknowledge no other sacrament 
but Baptism and the Lord's Supper." This unmistakably 
settles the point, that the Waldenses did not regard bap- 
tism as necessary to the pardon of sins; they regarded 
baptism and the Lord's Supper as signs of invisible things. 
In another Confession of Faith, published in 1669, 
the Waldenses have the following : "29. That God has 

ordained the sacrament of baptism to be 

,. n t ,. j n Israel of the Alps , 

a testimony of our adoption, and ot our o 05 

being cleansed from our sins by the blood 

of Jesus Christ, and renewed in holiness of life." 

Thus we discover that the Waldenses regarded baptism 
as a testimony of the cleansing from sins by the blood of 
Jesus Christ. With them, baptism was not in order to 
the cleansing from sin, but a testimony of it. In fact, the 
Waldenses regarded baptismal salvation, in connection 
with infant baptism, as one of the leading features of 
Antichrist. In a treatise concerning Antichrist, written 
by the Waldenses in the twelfth century, it is supposed, 
we have the following remarkable language concerning 
the doctrine of Antichrist : " He teaches 
to baptize children into the faith, and at- Jon ™l Chm H ^ 
tributes to this the w 7 ork of regeneration, 
thus confounding the work of the Holy Spirit in regen- 
eration with the external rite of baptism, and on this 
foundation bestows orders, and, indeed, grounds all Chris- 
tianity." 

By this we learn that the Waldenses regarded infant 
baptism and baptismal salvation as a leading feature of 



358 The Waldensean (Period. 

Antichrist ; it is, therefore, certain that they only baptized 
such as professed to be real saints, or children of God. 
We have the testimony of Evervinus, a Catholic writer 
of the twelfth century, that the ancient Waldenses rejected 
infant baptism. He wrote a letter to St. Bernard concern- 
ing the Waldenses about Cologne, in which he represents 
them as follows : " Thus they make void the priesthood of 
the church, and condemn the sacraments 

ix s ur °c s besides baptism only : and this only in 
of Pied,, p. 157. r J ' J 

those who are come to age, who, they say, 

are baptized by Christ himself, whosoever be the minister 
of the sacraments. They do not believe infant baptism ; 
alleging that place of the Gospel, whosoever shall believe, 
and be baptized, shall be saved." But enough on this 
point; it is a point fully proved that the ancient Waldenses 
baptized only those who professed to be true believers, or 
those who professed to be dead to sin. But did they im- 
merse, or bury in baptism, their converts? It is conceded 
by historians that immersion was the prevailing practice 
of all denominations which professed Christianity down to 
the thirteenth century. The exceptions to this practice 
were, that in cases of sickness the Catholics performed 
what has been called "clinic baptism " — by affusion; but 
they did not plead Scripture authority for this departure 
from apostolic practice ; they only pleaded necessity. But 
as the Waldenses adhered to the Scriptures, rejecting all 
the traditions of men, they did not adopt this innovation. 
And, according to their doctrine, there was no necessity 
for clinic baptism ; for they rejected baptismal salvation, 
which gave rise to the custom of the baptism of the sick 
to save them from the torments of hell. It is admitted by 
candid historians and learned Pedobaptists that sprinkling 



Waldenses for Immersion. 359 

or pouring is a Romish tradition, and as the Waldenses 
regarded these traditions with abhorrence, they, therefore, 
rejected the traditions of sprinkling and pouring instead 
of baptism. Even those societies which adopted the prac- 
tice of infant baptism continued the ancient practice of 
immersion; for they immersed their infants, mostly with 
three dips. Dr. Wall, the celebrated Pedobaptist histo- 
rian, speaking of the introduction of pouring and sprink- 
ling, remarks : "And though the English 

received not this custom till after the decay f ' f ™ a ^ 3 

. . t V °L -A P- '28. 

of Popery, yet they have since received 

it from such neighboring nations as had begun it in the 
times of the Pope's power. But all other Christians in the 
world, who never owned the Pope's usurped power, do, 
and ever did, dip their infants in the ordinary use." 
Again, in speaking of the administration of baptism among 
the ancients, Dr. Wall says : " Their general and ordinary 
way was to baptize by immersion, or dip- 
ping; the person, whether it were an infant f ' / n ^' a P '* 
r & r } . vol I, p. 706. 

or grown man or woman, into the water. 

This is so plain and clear, by an infinite number of pas- 
sages, that, as one can not but pity the weak endeavors of 
such Pedobaptists as would maintain the negative of it, so 
also we ought to disown and show a dislike of the profane 
scoffs which some people give to the English Anti-pedo- 
baptists merely for their use of dipping. It is one thing to 
maintain that that circumstance is not absolutely necessary 
to the essence of baptism, and another to go about to repre- 
sent it as ridiculous and foolish, or as shameful and inde- 
cent, when it was, in all probability, the way by which our 
blessed Savior, and for certain, w T as the most usual and 
ordinary way by which the ancient Christians did receiv 



360 The Waldensean (Period. 

their baptism. I shall not stay to produce the particular 
proofs of this. Many of the quotations which I brought 
for other purposes, and shall bring, do evince it. It is a 
great want of prudence, as well as of honesty, to refuse to 
grant to an adversary what is certainly true, and may be 
proved so. It creates a jealousy of all the rest that one 
says." From these passages from this eminent historian, 
it is evident that the prevailing custom among ancient 
Christians was an immersion or burial in baptism; and 
the only exception to this was found among*Roman Cath- 
olics in favor of sick people. But as the Waldenses neither 
originated with the Catholics nor received their traditions, 
therefore they did not receive sprinkling or pouring, but 
held the burial in baptism of those who were believers. 
Reinerius Saccho, the Catholic persecutor of the Wal- 
denses, says of them, that : " They hold that none of the 

ordinances of the church which have been 
°2S9 W *' introduced since Christ's ascension, ought 

to be observed, as being of no value." It 
is well known that sprinkling and pouring for baptism 
have been introduced long since the ascension of Christ; 
and as the Waldenses rejected all such ordinances, there- 
fore they rejected sprinkling or pouring for baptism. The 
fact that the Waldenses baptized all whom they received 
into fellowship, even when they had been previously im- 
mersed by others, is positive proof that the Waldenses 
practiced immersion or burial in baptism. Those parties 
who are so indifferent about the commands of Jesus Christ 
as to practice sprinkling and pouring for baptism, do not 
insist on the baptism of those that come from other parties ; 
they are, therefore, not called Anabaptists. It may be laid 
down as an historic axiom, that where Anabaptism prevails, 



Equality among the Waldenses. 361 

immersion is the action of baptism. The Waldenses were 

"Anabaptists/' not Munsterites ; therefore, they practiced 

immersion, or burial, for baptism. The following, from 

Joseph Belcher, shows that the Waldenses were known as 

Anabaptists : " Bishop Bossuet, a Catholic, 

-,.. n n i . i r» !•• Reliqious Denom., 

complaining oi Calvin s party tor claiming ^ , * . « 4 

apostolical succession through the Wal- 
denses, observes : ' You adopt Henry and Peter de Bruys 
among your predecessors, but both of these everybody 
knows were Anabaptists/ " No historian has ever charged 
the Waldenses with the practice of sprinkling and pour- 
ing for baptism. We may consider it a point generally 
admitted that the ancient Waldenses possessed the Baptist 
peculiarity of holding the burial in baptism of those who 
are dead to sin. 

Fifth: Baptists recognize equal rights or privileges in 
the execution of the laws of the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 
Baptists have ever been distinguished by their love of re- 
ligious liberty, while Pedobaptists have generally claimed 
the right to propagate religion by law. We will find this 
Baptist peculiarity prominently developed among the Wal- 
denses. The inquisitor Reinerius, reports the Waldenses 
as holding: "That none in the church 
ought to be greater than their brethren," °\±o ' 

according to Matt. 20 : 25, etc. It is 
known that the Waldenses regarded the different orders 
in the ministry, established by the Catholics, as part of 
the abominations of Antichrist. They even allowed their 
women to teach in their congregations. We find, in an 
ancient Waldensean Confession, the follow- 
ing Article on liberty : " We esteem for ^^ **' 
an abomination and as antichristian, all 



362 The Waldensean (Period. 

those human inventions which are a trouble or prejudice 
to the liberty of the spirit." Thus we find the ancient 
Waldenses, like the modern Baptists, contending for spirit 
or u soul-liberty." It will be remembered that the Albi- 
genses were a branch or a part of the Waldensean family ; 
they held the same doctrine in every point of church 
organization. In regard to the point in question, Mr. 

Orchard remarks : " The errors of the 
t'T lit aP ' Albigenses, who, in their church capacity, 

says Collier, had none but lay brethren to 
officiate among them, and who professed equality in the 
brotherhood, began now to grow more public." As to the 
charge, that the Albigenses had none but lay brethren for 
preachers, this must be understood with reference to Cath- 
olic views ; for they regarded all as laymen who had not 
received Romish ordination. The Waldenses had pastors 
ordained by themselves. It is so generally admitted that 
the ancient Waldenses recognized the equality of their 
membership, as regards church privileges, that it is un- 
necessary to occupy much space on this point. In the an- 
cient Waldensean documents preserved by Leger, and 
quoted by Monastier in his History of the Vaudois Church, 

we have the following : " ' Among other 
His. of the Vaudois ^ ' ^ r^ ^ ^ • i • 

Church 95 powers which God has given his servants, 

he has given them power to choose leaders 
(pastors) who may govern the people, and to appoint elders 
to their offices, according to the diversity of their employ- 
ments, in the unity of Christ, as the apostle proves in his 
epistle to Titus/ * * * As to the discipline of pastors, it 
is said : ' Whenever any one of our pastors has fallen into 
any disgraceful sin, he is expelled from our society, and the 
office of preaching is taken from him/ As to their support, 



Equality among the Waldenses. 363 

it is said : i Our food and clothing are supplied and given 
to us gratuitously, and in the way of alms, as much as is 
needed, by the good people whom we teach/ The barbes, 
moreover, all applied themselves to some useful art, par- 
ticularly medicine and surgery. No hierarchical distinc- 
tion was established : the only diiference that existed be- 
tween the pastors was that arising from age, or services 
performed, and personal respect/' 

In this quotation, it shouid be observed, that it was the 
servants of God, members of his church, who were to choose 
leaders or elders to the pastorship, and exclude them from 
the church if they proved unworthy ; and the only differ- 
ence that existed between the pastors was that arising from 
age, services performed, and personal respect. The same 

author further remarks : " We conceive 

rL xL' x* tL • • i? xi His. of theVaudois 

that this entire submissiveness ot the ~, J , _, Ar , 

Church, p. 102. 

younger barbes (pastors) to the more aged 
and to the leaders, has led Roman Catholic authors into 
an error, and made them believe that the Yaudois had a 
clerical hierarchy, like themselves, of bishops, etc. But 
nothing in their history or writings authorizes us to be- 
lieve in the existence of any other distinction among the 
barbes excepting that of age, experience, and personal 
qualities, which determined their choice of leaders as cir- 
cumstances might require — as is still practiced, and, no 
doubt, was always practiced in this church." It may be 
regarded as an established historic fact, that the ancient 
Waldenses possessed the Baptist peculiarity of religious 
equality in church membership. Dupin, the Catholic histo- 
rian, admits that Reinerius Saccho, the in- 
quisitor, charged the Waldenses with hold- % P 2 ™ 8 \ 4 q W ' 
ing, " that all the members of the church 



364 The Waldensean (Period. 

are equal ;" and "that the washing (baptizing) of infants 
is of no avail to them ; that the sureties do not understand 
what they answer to the priest." 

This religious equality among the Waldenses grows out 
of their fundamental principles of taking the Bible alone 
as their guide, and claiming no founder and head but 
Jesus Christ. Some have supposed that the Waldenses 
carried this principle of equality to an extreme in allowing 
the women to teach and pray in the congregations. But 
it should be remembered, that this was allowed in the 
church at Corinth in the time of Paul, on condition that 
it be done with the head covered or vailed. And it was 
especially necessary among the Waldenses, owing to the 
fact, that in those fearful times of persecution the women 
could gain access where the pastors could not go. His- 
tory shows that often the devout Waldensean women went 
out, two and two, on foot, as missionaries, to teach from 
house to house, in their quiet way, the Gospel of salvation. 
And to avoid detection by the Catholic emissaries, they 
usually took with them a basket of small wares or trinkets 
to sell ; but when the opportunity came, they would read 
and expound the Scriptures to the deluded Catholics and 
other sinners. 

Sixth: Baptists observe the Lord's Supper at his table in 
his kingdom. It will also be found that the ancient Wal- 
denses possessed this peculiarity also. For the discussion 
of the communion question, the reader is referred to chap- 
ter thirteenth of this work. The Waldenses were often 
called Puritans, because of their strenuous advocacy of 
purity in doctrine and communion. At the beginning of 
the sixteenth century the Catholic clergy instigated Ula- 
dislaus, King of Bohemia, to issue an edict to force the 



Waldenses Strict in Communion. 365 

Waldenses, in his kingdom, to commune with the Calix- 
tines or Catholics. In regard to this edict, Mr. Jones 
remarks : " At first the states would not 
allow this edict the force of law, so jealous on ™ 
were the Bohemians of their liberties, and 
it took four years to bring them to consent to a statute 
which prohibited the * United Brethren ' from holding any 
religious assemblies, public or private; commanded that 
their meeting-houses should all be shut up, that they 
should not be allowed either to preach or print, and that 
within a given time they should all hold religious com- 
munion with either the Calixtines or the Catholics" Not 
long after the passage of this cruel edict, some of these 
Waldenses were committed to the flames because they 
would neither commune with the Catholics nor with those 
that did commune with Rome. By this we learn that the 
true Waldenses were so strict in communion that they pre- 
ferred death by burning to the indorsement of error by 
communing with false churches. In their treatise on An- 
tichrist, the ancient Waldenses said : " We 

i!! . -i ■ , • • * Jones' Ch. His.. 

hold communion and maintain unity one OC/1 ' 

. P- 254. 
with another, freely and uprightly, having 

no other object to propose herein but purely and singly to 
please the Lord, and seek the salvation of our souls." The 
Waldenses did not hold communion with Antichrist, but 
with one another. The fact that the Waldenses main- 
tained that the only true church was among themselves, 
furnishes evidence that they did not commune with others ; 
for they regarded communion as a church ordinance in the 
kingdom of Christ; they could not, therefore, give or re- 
ceive the Lord's Supper beyond the limits of the church. 
Again : The Waldenses were called Anabaptists. They 



366 The Waldensean (Period. 

would not receive to their fellowship and communion those 
who had been baptized by other parties. As already re- 
marked, all those who practiced Anabaptism were also 
strict in their communion. Mr. Orchard remarks, on this 

point : " The Albigenses prevailed in the 
' ®P ' emew > south of France. These people admitted 

those only to the Lord's Supper who had 
been immersed (Mezeray,) after fasting and prayer." 
These Albigenses were the same with the Waldenses on 
all points of church organization. They were really a 
part of the same religious community. They were strict 
in communion. Those called Petrobrusians were ancient 
Waldenses. Mr. Orchard says that, " Peter de Bruys 

and his followers declared all baptisms 
S. Bapt. Review. u -, . , u -,. r™ 

121 ^ ' null unless given to believers, ihey re- 

baptized all proselytes, and were anti- 
pedobaptists. They were very strict." Again : of the 

Waldenses, Mr. Orchard remarks : " They 
S. Bapt Review. Q . , -, , . , • x> 

12 ^ ' were bcriptural, or strict communion Bap- 

tists, so far as communities can be discov- 
ered among them." No historian, known to me, has ever 
dared to assert that the ancient witnessing Waldenses 
were open cornmunionists. During nearly all the period 
of the twelve hundred and sixty years of their testimony 
there were no modern Protestants for them to commune 
with; and when the Reformation of the sixteenth cen- 
tury occurred, the strict Waldenses had no more fellow- 
ship for them than they had for the Catholics. During 
eleven hundred years of the sackcloth testimony of the 
Waldenses, there were no Lutherans, no Episcopalians, 
no Presbyterians, and, of course, no Methodists, to tempt 
them to deviate from the laws of Jesus Christ in regard 



Waldenses Strict in Communion. 367 

to the Supper. Will any one so far stultify himself as to 
affirm that these ancient sufferers held religious commun- 
ion with the Romish apostasy? 

The "Waldenses regarded all the Catholic worship as 
the grossest idolatry ; they did not, therefore, commune 
with Antichrist. They boldly affirmed that the Church 
of Rome is the " whore of Babylon ; " and any commun- 
ion with her they regarded as spiritual fornication — an 
unspeakable abomination. For repudiating the Romish 
communion, with all her abominable superstitions, the Wal- 
denses suffered untold persecutions through all the dark 
ages of popish rule. Yes: these ancient Waldensean Bap- 
tists, as a denomination, raised the only standard of oppo- 
sition and protest against the corruptions and blasphemy of 
the papal dragon during the dark midnight of the world 
for more than a thousand years before Luther, King Henry, 
Calvin, and others, raised the standard of rebellion in the 
Church of Rome, in which mighty religious earthquake a 
tenth part of the harlot city fell. But, alas ! these mighty 
reformers of the sixteenth century, instead of coming out 
of Babylon, as they were commanded, attempted to reform 
that old, polluted, miserable, bloody, debased, cruel, 
drunken ecclesiastical bawd, in order to prepare a bride 
for the Lamb of God ! And their reforming efforts were 
so tremendous as to shake " Mystery Babylon " to her 
dark foundations. This brought on her pangs; and 
amidst her mighty throes, which shook the nations, she 
brought forth those ecclesiastical organizations called, 
in the Bible, "Haelots and abominations of the 
eakth." These daughters of the old " Mother and Mis- 
tress of Churches" still retain the peculiar characteristic 
£ c tures of the " Mother Church f for they have all sought, 



368 The Waldensean Period. 

and entered, when they have had the opportunity, into an 
adulterous marriage with civil powers. And they, like 
their mother, have " committed fornication with the kings 
of the earth." They, as organizations, have derived their 
ordinances, their laws, more or less, and their church ex- 
istence, from Rome. But now they come, dressed up in 
the garments of reformation, and wish to commune with 
the bride, the Lamb's wife ! The bride of the Lamb 
has no more business to affiliate and commune with these 
mystic daughters of Rome than the faithful wife has to 
become the associate of the abandoned women of earth. 

But will it be said that there are some of God's children 
in these churches which sprang from Catholicism? May 
we not commune with them ? There are some of God's 
children in old Rome herself; but they are commanded 
to " come out w of her. We are not to go into these human 
societies to get communion with them. The people of God 
are required to come out, and eat and drink at the Lord's 
table in his kingdom. Most persons fail to distinguish 
between organizations and individuals. Many things may 
be true of organizations as such, which are not true of the 
individuals which compose those organizations. It is true, 
as an organization, that the Church of Rome is represented 
as the "Mother of Harlots;" but this is not true of every 
individual member of the Catholic church. Individually, 
there are, in the Church of Rome, many virtuous, honor- 
• able, conscientious, high-toned, charitable men and women. 
And more : I am confident that there are some of God's 
dear children in the Romish Babylon. The same, and 
more, may be said of the churches which came from 
Catholicism; for the reformed churches are improvements 
on popery. The unchastity of these societies has regard 



Waldenses Strict in Communion. 369 

to their false worship, in giving the honor to men that 
should be given to God alone. God, by the mouth of the 
prophet, pointed out the cities of Samaria and Jerusalem 
under the figures of two debased "harlots;? and yet, 
there were some virtuous people in those cities, even some 
of God's prophets. Mixed or "open" communion in- 
volves the recognition of those organizations with whose 
members we commune. The ancient witnessing Waldenses 
were what are now called " close " communionists. They 
maintained, at fearful cost, the Bible teaching of restricted 
communion. They walked in this " narrow way." They 
possessed the same peculiar characteristic feature which 
now calls down the frowns of the world on the Baptists. 

Seventh: The Baptists have never persecuted others; 
but have themselves always been peculiarly persecuted and 
every-where* spoken against. Both friends and foes are 
agreed that the Waldenses possessed this peculiarity in 
the superlative degree ; for, of all others, they have been 
the most bitterly persecuted, and slaughtered by millions 
on account of their fidelity to Jesus Christ. It would oc- 
cupy volumes to enter into a detailed history of the perse- 
cutions and sufferings of the ancient Waldenses. It was 
the wrath of the papal dragon which made it necessary 
for the church to flee into the wilderness to find an asylum 
from the fearful storms of persecutions raised against it; 
and though the church was saved from destruction, yet 
"the remnant of her seed" endured the wrath of the 
dragon for twelve hundred and sixty years. In them 
has been fulfilled the prophecy where it is said, "The 

same horn made war with the saints, and _ * M M ^ 
., ', . t ., " ' . . Dan. 7: 21,22,25. 

prevailed against them ; until the Ancient 

of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of 



370 The Waldensean ^Period. 

the Most High, and the time came that the saints pos- 
sessed the kingdom," "And they shall be given into his 
hands until a time, and times, and the dividing of time." 
At the commencement of this chapter it was seen that the 
decree of the emperors Theodosius and Honorious made 
death the penalty for re-baptizing. This decree was made 
against the Novatians, who fled to the valleys of the Alps, 
and were afterward known as Waldenses. The Paulicians, 
who are known to have been the Waldenses of the East, 
suffered the most terrible persecutions under Theodora. 
Mr. Orchard says: "The severest perse- 
10 ' a ^'o 7 W '' cutions experienced by them was encour- 
aged by the Empress Theodora, A. D. 845. 
Her decrees were severe, but the cruelty with which they 
were put in execution by her officers was horrible beyond 
expression. Mountains and hills were covered with in- 
habitants. Her sanguinary inquisitors explored cities and 
mountains in lesser Asia. After confiscating the goods 
and property of an hundred thousand of these people, the 
owners to that number were put to death in the most bar- 
barous manner, and made to expire slowly under a variety 
of the most exquisite tortures. The flatterers of the em- 
press boast of having extirpated in nine years that num- 
ber of Paulicians." We have the following account of the 
persecutions of a company of Waldenses who made their 
appearance in England in the year 1159; "Toward the 
middle of the twelfth century a small so- 

J ° 213 ° h ' m& '' ciet y of these P uritans > as the y were called 
by some, or Waldenses, as they were termed 

by others, or Paulicians, as they were denominated by 

our old monkish historian, William of Newburg, made 

their appearance in England. This latter writer, speaking 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 371 

of theni, says: 'They came originally from Gascoyne, 
where, being as numerous as the sand of the sea, they 
sorely infested both France, Italy, Spain, and England/ " 
"They were apprehended, and brought 
before a council of the clergy at Oxford. 21 ~ ' "' 
Being interrogated about their religion, 
their teacher, named Gerard, a man of learning, answered 
in their name, that they were Christians, and believed the 
doctrines of the apostles. Upon a more particular inquiry, 
it was found that they denied several of the received doc- 
trines of the church, such as purgatory, prayers for the 
dead, and the invocation of saints ; and refusing to aban- 
don these damnable heresies, as they were called, they 
were condemned as incorrigible heretics, and delivered to 
the secular arm to be punished. The king (Henry II.), 
at the instigation of the clergy, commanded them to be 
branded with a red-hot iron on the forehead, to be whipped 
through the streets of Oxford, and, having their clothes 
cut short by their girdles, to be turned into the open fields, 
all persons being forbidden to afford them any shelter or 
relief under the severest penalties. This cruel sentence 
was executed in its utmost rigor; and, it being the depth 
of winter, all these unhappy persons perished with cold 
and hunger." Thus we have the record of the sad fate of 
these thirty Waldenses, men and women, who fled into 
England from the hands of persecution, only to meet a more 
fearful doom from the hands of those who professed to be 
Christians. Again : Ildefonsus, the King of Arragon, is- 
sued a cruel edict against the Waldenses in the year 1194, 
in which is contained language as follows : 
"Whosoever, therefore, from this day for- Jon ^ Gh ' His '> 
ward, shall presume to receive the said 



372 The V/aldensean (Period. 

Waldenses and Inzabbati, or any other heretics of whatso- 
ever profession, into their houses, or to be present at their 
pernicious sermons, or to afford them meat, or any other 
favor, shall thereby incur the indignation of Almighty 
God, as well as ours, and have his goods confiscated with- 
out the remedy of an appeal, and be punished as if he were 
actually guilty of high treason." 

Thus we learn, that in Arragon, now Spain, the pen- 
alty for giving food, or showing any other favor to the 
hated Waldenses, was death, as for high treason. What 
must have been the wrath and indignation against these 
poor people, when it was considered a crime worthy of 
death, for even a Catholic to favor one of them with 
shelter from the storm, a piece of bread, or a cup of 
cold water? And in this persecution, "The archbishops 
and bishops of Guienne and other prov- 
es - **., - nces £ jr rance ^ as W ell as the clergy 

throughout the different dioceses, were 
enjoined to banish the Waldenses, Puritans and Paterines 
from their territories; to mark them, and take care that 
they should neither enjoy Christian privileges while liv- 
ing, nor burial when dead." 

It might have been supposed, that the Catholic fury 
would have been satiated with the death of these saints, 
but not so; they persecuted the mutilated bodies of the 
dead Waldenses, by denying them the poor privilege of 
a resting-place in the grave. Is this the religion of Jesus? 
About the time of the marching of the crusading armies 
against the Albigenses in the south of France, a public 
discussion was agreed upon, between the Albigenses and 
the Catholics, who entered into the discussion under pre- 
tense of fairness, in order to detain their unsuspecting 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 373 

victims till the arrival of the crusaders, when the discus- 
sion was terminated with the slaughter of the Albigenses. 
The discussion had progressed several days, conducted 
on the part of the Albigenses by Arnold Hot, and on the 
part of the Catholics by bishop Eusus, when it was sud- 
denly broken up by the Catholic army of the crusaders, 
which was employed to murder those whom the bishops 
could not vanquish in debate. And after the slaughter 
of those assembled, this holy (?) army proceeded to deso- 
late the country, and "'the armies employed by Pope 
Innocent III. destroyed above two hun- 
dred thousand of them in the short space Jone t Ch ' &$> 
of a few months.'" It will be remem- 
bered, that the Albigenses- and Waldenses were the same 
class of Christians. And in order to exterminate the 
Albigenses from the south of France, crusading armies 
were raised by order of the Pope to perform this bloody 
work. In order the better to seduce the superstitious 
Catholics into their army, they were granted plenary 
indulgence to sin, with the promise of the joys of heaven, 
as a reward for murdering the saints of God. So great 
was their enthusiasm against the Albigenses, that "the 
legate Milo's army .was found to consist 

of about three hundred thousand fighting Fer ff A 9 m * 

p. 144. 
men." And the enormities committed by 

these so-called " Christian armies" beggars all description. 

Concerning these desolating scenes, Mr. Jones remarks: 

" The scenes of slaughter and devastation which had been 

carried on against the Albigenses in the 

southern provinces of France, for more Jon ™' Ch% His ' y 

D 290. 
than twenty years during the former part 

of the thirteenth century, in which time it has been com- 



374 The Waldensean (Period. 

puted that a million of persons bearing that name were 
put to death, had occasioned many of them to cross the 
Pyrenees, and seek a shelter from the storm in the Spanish 
provinces of Arragon and Catalonia." 

In regard to the persecutions of the Waldenses in other 
countries, in the latter part of the thirteenth century, Mr. 
Jones says: "In Sicily in particular, the 
° n ^n ' ^ imperial fury raged against them. They 
were ordered to be treated with the great- 
est severity, that they might be banished, not only from 
the country, but from the earth. And throughout Italy, 
both Gregory IX. and Honorius IV. harassed and op- 
pressed them with the most unrelenting barbarity, by 
means of the Inquisition. The living were, without mercy, 
committed to the hands of the executioner, their houses 
razed to the ground, their goods confiscated, and even the 
slumbering remains of the dead were dragged from their 
graves and their bones committed to the flames." These 
persecutions were not the result of the outburst of passion 
upon the part of inferior officers in the Catholic service; 
but it seems to have been the settled policy of the Pope, 
with all his inferior clergy, to eradicate from the Catholic 
mind and heart every principle of compassion, in order to 
instigate every son of the church to persecute the Wal- 
denses with the fury of incarnate fiends. 

About the year 1400 the Waldensean inhabitants of the 
valley of Pragela were surprised by the Catholic soldiers. 
The attack was made upon them in December, when the 
mountains were covered with snow. As the work of 
slaughter and death went on in the valley, the remnant 
of the inhabitants that escaped the fury of the soldiers, 
perished in the mountain snows. Mr. Jones says, of their 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 375 

fate : " They fled to one of the highest 

mountains of the Alps, with their wives on ^ x( . 

i P- 319. 

and children, the unhappy mothers carry- 
ing the cradle in one hand, and with the other leading 
such of their offspring as were able to walk. Their inhu- 
man invaders, whose feet were swift to shed blood, pursued 
them in their flight until night came on, and slew great 
numbers of them before they could reach the mountains. 
Those that escaped were, however, reserved to experience 
a fate not more enviable. Overtaken by the shades of 
night, they wandered up and down the mountains, covered 
with snow, destitute of the means of shelter from the in- 
clemencies of the weather, or of supporting themselves 
under it by any of the comforts which Providence has 
destined for that purpose. Benumbed with cold, they fell 
an easy prey to the severity of the climate, and, when the 
night had passed away, there were found in their cradles, 
or lying upon the snow, four score of their infants de- 
prived of life, many of their mothers also lying dead by 
their sides, and others just on the point of expiring. 
During the night their enemies were busily employed in 
plundering the houses of everything that was valuable, 
which they conveyed away to Susa. A poor woman be- 
longing to the Waldenses, named Margaret Athode, was 
next morning found hanging upon a tree." In order to 
instigate the civil rulers to slaughter the Waldenses as 
they would ravenous beasts, the Catholic clergy were ac- 
customed to fabricate and circulate the most fabulous slan- 
ders and falsehoods concerning these people. They even 
represented their children as little mon- 
sters. The Duke of Savoy, "having been Jon ^ Ch ' ^ 
informed that their young children were 



376 The Wcddensean (Period. 

born with black throats; that they were hairy, and had 
four rows of teeth, with only one eye, and that placed in 
the middle of the forehead, — he commanded some of 
them to be brought before him at Pignerol, where, being 
satisfied by occular demonstration that the Waldenses 
were not monsters, he blamed himself for being so easily 
imposed upon by the clergy of the Catholic Church as to 
credit such idle report/' etc. 

This illustrates the blinding power of " religious " prej- 
udice. In the fifteenth century, when the Waldenses 
were slaughtered iri the valley Loyse, by the command of 
Pope Innocent VIII., a part of the inhabitants had taken 
refuge in the caves in the mountains. But the Catholic 
general discovered their places of retreat, and built large 
fires in the entrances to the caves ; and immense numbers 
were, in this way, suffocated in their caves : and among 

the rest, four hundred children were " suf- 
™ located in their cradles, or in the arms 01 

their dead mothers." In the early part of 
the sixteenth century, the most cruel persecutions continued 
to be waged against the Waldenses in the south of France; 
and in the year 1545, John Meinier led the Catholic 
forces against the Waldenses in Provence, in France. 
And among other horrid cruelties, this inhuman wretch 

"shut up about forty women in a barn 
oo-, * •" full of hay and straw, and then set it on 

fire; and after that, the poor creatures, 
having attempted in vain to smother the fire with their 
clothes, which, for that end, they had pulled off, betook 
themselves to the great window, at which the hay is com- 
monly pitched up into the barn, with an intention to leap 
down from thence. But they were kept in with spikes 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 37 * 

and spears, so that all of them perished in the flames." 
It is heart-sickening to record the horrid transactions 
of Catholic popes and their emissaries, in their vain 
attempt to destroy the Church of Christ from the world. 
It would be more pleasant to draw a curtain over those 
dismal scenes of persecution, and let them be forever 
blotted from the history of the world. But, one of the 
designs of history is to give faithfully, not only the rise 
of principles and systems, but also their fruits for good or 
evil, that coming generations may avoid the errors which 
have filled the world with misery and woe. Roman 
Catholics are no worse by nature than others. The per- 
secutions which they have waged against others, arise 
from their false religious principles. The first step toward 
persecution among professed Christians^ was the gradual 
introduction of a change from the simple brotherly com- 
pact of religious equality established by Jesus Christ, for 
the hierarchy in the third century. As long as the princi- 
ples of religious equality are observed, there can be no 
persecution. Any religious system w^hich gives one person 
ecclesiastical authority over another, contains the seeds 
of persecution. Infant baptism and membership is but 
the development of the principle of a hierarchal form of 
church government, which gives one person rule over 
another in matters of religion. We may, therefore, con- 
sider infant baptism as the second element of religious 
persecution. Where all have equal rights in church 
government, there can be no infant baptism; and where 
there is no infant baptism, religious persecution, to the 
shedding of blood, is not likely to prevail. Every church 
holding an episcopal, or hierarchal form of government, 
has persecuted when it has had the power. The AVal- 



378 The Waldensean (Period. 

denses have never persecuted others. It is impossible to 
persecute on Baptist principles. Some have concluded 
that every church, if it had the power, would persecute 
and shed the blood of others on the account of religion. 
This is a mistake. Baptists, though sorely persecuted 
from generation to generation, have never oppressed, 
imprisoned, or caused the blood of others to be shed, on 
the ground of religion. This is one of the strongest proofs 
that we have the Bible organization. 

It has been supposed that the Catholic Church would 
not now persecute, if she had the power, as she did in 
former times. This is a mistake ; for Rome now possesses 
every element of despotism and persecution that she ever 
had. In fact, the element of persecution seems to be on 
the increase with' the Catholics ; for, in this present year, 
A. D. 1870, the slight restraint heretofore resting on the 
Pope from the authority of the General Council, has been 
removed, and the Pope has been declared infallible by the 
General Council at Rome. And even to this day, the 
Catholic bishops are sworn, in their oath of consecration, 
to " oppose and persecute heretics to the 
°268 ' u ^ most °f their power." They have re- 

garded the Baptists as " heretics" of the 
deepest cast ; they are, therefore, sworn to persecute Bap- 
tists to the utmost of their power. Modern Baptists are 
not generally apprised of the great cost at which Baptist 
principles have been preserved. In the year 1232, at the 
instigation of Pope Gregory IX., the Emperor Fred- 
erick II., " i commanded all judges imme- 
l8 ' a ''' ' A diately to deliver to the flames every man 
who should be convicted of heresy by the 
bishop of his diocese, and to pull out the tongue of those 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 379 

to whom the bishop should think it proper to show favor, 
that they might not corrupt others/ " It was sometimes 
the custom for the Catholics to cut out the tongues of the 
Waldenses to prevent their preaching while they were 
burning at the stake. 

But amid all these fearful sufferings God caused the 
wrath of man to praise him, so that the saying was verified, 
that "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church." 
And to the same effect, Mr. Jones remarks that : " Those 
bloody edicts which were published, those 
fires which were lighted up, and that va- o 42 ' ' 
riety of torments which priests and inquis- 
itors invented with ingenious cruelty, served in reality to 
propagate the doctrines against which they were employed, 
and contributed to inflame, rather than extinguish, that 
ardent zeal with which the Protestants were animated." 

Near the close of the long period marked as the Wal- 
densean period, the Waldenses began to be called Bap- 
tists. They had been called Anabaptists from the time 
of Novatian. Cardinal Hosius, a learned Catholic, who 
was chairman of the Council of Trent, speaking of the 
Waldensean Baptists, says : " If the truth 
of religion were to be judged of by the a ^' ^ ' '' 
readiness and cheerfulness which a man 
of any sect shows in suffering, then the opinions and per- 
suasions of no sect can be truer or surer than those of the 
Anabaptists ; since there have been none for these twelve 
hundred years past that have been more grievously pun- 
ished." 

Reader, mark the historic fact, that for twelve hundred 
years prior to 1570 the Baptists had suffered the most 
cruel punishments on account of their principles. This 



380 The Waldensean (Period. 

can be said of no denomination except the Baptists. Near 
the close of the Waldensean period, in the year 1655, on 
the twenty-fifth day of January, Andrew Gastaldo, the 
Catholic governor under the Duke of Savoy, published a 
most inhuman "order" against the Waldenses of the val- 
leys of Piedmont. And in this fiendish order of Gas- 
taldo the Waldenses were required, "Within three days 

after the publication of those presents, to 
™ ' '' withdraw and depart, and to be, with their 

families, withdrawn out of the said places, 
and transported into the places allowed by his royal high- 
ness during his good pleasure, etc., under pain of death 
and confiscation of houses and goods; provided, always, 
that they do not make it appear to us, within twenty days 
following, that they are become Catholics, or that they 
have sold their goods to Catholics." This dreadful order 
required thousands of families to leave all, in the dead of 
winter, and attempt a flight, over snow-covered mountains, 
with women and children, sick and infirm, with only three 
days' notice to start to seek homes in foreign countries. 
But before they could get away the Catholics were turned 
loose on them to slaughter the defenseless Waldenses with- 
out mercy. We give the letter written by the Waldenses 
directly after the dreadful tragedy. They begin this 
mournful letter by saying : 

. " Brethren and fathers : — Our tears are no more tears 
of water, but of blood, which not only obscure our sight, 

but oppress our very hearts. Our pen 
0n6 \an o 67 tS " > is guided by a trembling hand, and our 

minds are distracted by such unexpected 
alarms, that we are incapable of framing a letter which 
shall correspond with our wishes, or the strangeness of our 






Waldenses (Persecuted. 381 

desolations. In this respect, therefore, we plead your ex- 
cuse, and that you would endeavor to collect our meaning 
from what we would impart to you. 

Whatever reports may have been circulated concerning 
our obstinacy in refusing to have recourse to his royal 
highness for a redress of our heavy grievances and moles- 
tations, you can not but know that we have never desisted 
from w T riting supplicatory letters, or presenting our hum- 
ble requests, by the hands of our deputies, and that they 
were sent and referred, sometimes to the council de prop- 
aganda fide* at other times to the Marquis of Pionessa,f 
and that the three last times they were positively rejected, 
and refused so much as an audience, under the pretext 
that they had no credentials nor instructions which should 
anthorize them to promise or accept, on the behalf of their 
respective churches, whatever it might please his highness 
to grant or bestow upon them. And, by the instigation 
and contrivance of the Roman clergy, there was secretly 
placed in ambush an army of six thousand men, who, an- 
imated and encouraged thereto by the personal presence 
and active exertions of the Marquis of Pionessa, fell sud- 
denly and in the most violent manner upon the inhabit- 
ants of S. jGriovanni and La Torre. 

This army, having once entered and got a footing, was 
soon augmented by the addition of a multitude of the 
neighboring inhabitants throughout all Piedmont, who, 
hearing that we were given up as a prey to the plunder- 

* A council established by the court of Rome for propagating the 
faith, or, in plain English, for extirpating heretics. 

f This unfeeling man seems to have sustained the station of Prime 
Minister in the court of the Duke of Savoy, and Commander-in-chief 
of his army. 



382 The Waldensean (Period. 

ers, fell upon the poor people with impetuous fury. To 
all those were added an incalculable number of persons 
that had been outlawed, prisoners and other offenders, 
who expected thereby to have saved their souls and filled 
their purses. And, the better to effect their purposes, the 
inhabitants were compelled to receive jive or six regiments 
of the French army, besides some Irish, to whom, it is re- 
ported, our country was promised, with several troops of 
vagabond persons, under the pretext of coming into the 
valleys for fresh quarters. 

This great multitude, by virtue of a license from the 
Marquis of Pionessa, instigated by the monks, and enticed 
and conducted by our wicked and unnatural neighbors, 
attacked us with such violence on every side, especially in 
Angrogna, Yillare, and Bobbio, and in a manner so hor- 
ribly treacherous, that in an instant all was one entire 
scene of confusion, and the inhabitants, after a fruitless 
skirmish to defend themselves, were compelled to flee for 
their lives, with their wives and children, aad that not 
merely the inhabitants of the plain, but those of the moun- 
tains also. Nor was all their diligence sufficient to pre- 
vent the destruction of a very considerable number of 
them ; for in many places, such as Yillare an/1 Bobbio, 
they were so hemmed in on every side, the army having 
seized on the fort of Mareburg and by that means blocked 
up the avenue, that there remained no possibility of escape, 
and nothing was left for them but to be massacred and put 
to death. In one place, they mercilessly tortured not less 
than an hundred and fifty women and their children, chop- 
ping off the heads of some, and dashing out the brains of 
others against the rocks ; and in regard to those whom 
they took prisoners, from fifteen years old and upward, 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 383 

who refused to go to mass, they hanged some, and nailed 
others to the trees by the feet, with their heads downward. 
It is reported that they carried some persons of note pris- 
oners to Turin — viz : our poor brother and pastor, M. 
Gros, with some part of his family. In short, there is 
neither cattle nor provisions of any kind left in the valley 
of Lucerne, and it is but too evident that all is lost, since 
there are some whole districts, especially S. Giovanni and 
La Torre, where the business of setting fire to our houses 
and churches was so dexterously managed by a Franciscan 
friar and a certain priest that they left not so much as one 
in either place unburnt. In these desolations, the mother 
has been bereft of her dear child, the husband of his affec- 
tionate wife, and those who were "once the richest among 
us are reduced to the necessity of begging their bread, 
while others still remain weltering in their own blood, and 
deprived of all the comforts of life. And as to the churches 
in S. Martino and other places, who, on all former occa- 
sions, have been a sanctuary to the persecuted, they have 
themselves now been summoned to quit their dwellings, 
and every soul of them to depart, and that instantaneously 
and without respite, under pain of being put to death ; nor 
is there any mercy to be expected by any of them who are 
found within the dominions of his royal highness. 

The pretext which is alleged for justifying these horrid 
proceedings is, that we are rebels against the orders of his 
highness for not having brought the whole city of Geneva 
within the walls of Mary Magdalene Church, or, in plainer 
terms, for not having performed an utter impossibility in 
departing, in a moment, from our houses and homes in 
Bubbiana, Lucerne, Fenile, Bricheras, La Torre, S. Gio- 
vanni, and S. Secondo, and also for having renewed our 



384 The Waldensean (Period. 

repeated supplications to his highness to commiserate our 
situation, who, while on the one hand he promised us to 
make no innovations in our lot, on the other refused us 
permission to depart peaceably out of his dominions, for 
which we have often entreated him in case he would not 
allow us to continue and enjoy the liberty of our consciences 
as his predecessors had always done. True it is, that the 
Marquis of Pionessa adduced another reason (and we have 
the original copy of his writing in our possession), which 
is, that it was his royal highness' pleasure to abase us and 
humble our pride for endeavoring to shroud ourselves 
and take sanctuary under the protection of foreign princes 
and States. 

To conclude, our beautiful and flourishing churches are 
utterly lost, and that without remedy, unless our God 
work miracles for us. Their time is come, and our meas- 
ure is full. O, have pity upon the desolations of Jerusa- 
lem, and be grieved for the afflictions of Joseph. Show 
forth your compassions, and let your bowels yearn in be- 
half of so many thousands of poor souls, who are reduced 
to a morsel of bread for following the Lamb whithersoever 
he goeth. We recommend our pastors, with their scat- 
tered and dispersed flocks, to your fervent Christian pray- 
ers, and rest in haste. 



Your brethren in the Lord. 



April 27, 1655." 






The foregoing letter, written by the Waldenses to their 
friends soon after their banishment from their homes amidst 
cruelties and slaughter too terrible even to be named, is 
but an example of the sufferings of those witnesses of Jesus. 
We now come to the final dispersion of the Waldenses 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 385 



from their valleys. They had borne testimony in this 
wilderness retreat for 1260 years. The flight of the 
woman, or the retirement of the church, into the wilder- 
ness, as we have seen, occurred in the early part of the 
fifth century. The murderous decrees of the emperors of 
the East and West caused the Novatians to commence 
their flight soon after the publication of the decrees of ban- 
ishment and death, in A. D. 413. It was not possible for 
all to retire at the same time. They continued to emi- 
grate till the main body *of the Novatians had left Italy, 
which, I think, was consummated as early as the year 425, 
or 426. And from this date the 1260 years will take us 
to the year 1686, as the time for the woman to come forth 
from her hiding-place. I am not dogmatic in the settle- 
ment of dates. These are approximate dates to the re- 
tirement of the church and her coming out of the wilder- 
ness. As bodies of the Novatians had emigrated from 
Italy, from time to time, prior to the general flight, prior 
to the year 426, in like manner the Waldenses had been 
partially expelled from the valleys of the Alps, from time 
to time, prior to their final dispersion in 1686, by the 
armies of Louis XIV. and the Duke of Savoy. The 
woman was driven into the wilderness by the persecut- 
ing wrath of the dragon ; and it was the dreadful wrath 
of the same papal dragon that expelled the Waldenses 
from their places of security in the mountains. The bloody 
dragon had made "war with the remnant of her seed" 
throughout the Roman empire during the twelve hundred 
and sixty years ; and while the saints had been worn out 
and driven from one country to another in other parts of 
the empire, in the valleys of Piedmont the church had a 
local resting-place, and though sorely persecuted, she had 



386 The Waldensean (Period. 

not been driven from her place of retreat. Here, in the 
mountain valley s, the altar-fires of the true temple of God 
burned undimmed; here the ordinances of the Lord's 
house were faithfully administered for 1260 years; here 
the sound of the Gospel, faithfully preached, was heard 
from the lips of the faithful under-shepherds, all this time ; 
and from here, as from a parent hive, faithful missionaries 
went forth on the perilous work of preaching the Gospel 
and forming churches throughout the known world. The 
Waldensean heresy, as it was called, infected all the coun- 
tries of earth through the influence of missionaries from 
these valleys. These ancient Waldenses in the Alps 
formed a kind of Gospel store-house, where the true Gos- 
pel, true ministers, and true ordinances, could be furnished 
to all the world. But, at last, the prophetic, fatal period 
came. The Waldenses must be slain, or expelled from 
their ancient loved valleys. This final dispersion of these 
witnesses for Christ took place, according to Mr. Jones, 

in the year 1686. He says: "I professed 
ones . is., ^ » ve ^ e hig^ry f ^he c fi UTC fi es of Pied- 
pre/ace, p. y. ° j 

mont and other places, commonly desig- 
nated Waldenses and Albigenses, not of individuals ; and 
as I consider those churches to have been utterly dispersed 
and scattered by a series of persecutions, which terminated 
in the year 1686, I consider myself to have brought the 
subject to its legitimate close." 

After some years of comparative quiet of the Waldenses, 
says Mr. Jones: "On the 31st of January, 1686, they 
were amazed at the publication of an order from the Duke 
of Savoy, forbidding his subjects the exercise of the Pro- 
testant religion upon pain of death, and the confiscation 
of their goods; the demolition and the banishment of their 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 387 

5 

pastors. All infants born from that time, were to be 
baptized and brought up in the Roman Catholic religion, 
under the penalty of their fathers being condemned to the 
galleys. Their consternation was extreme." The name 
of the cruel wretch who has the unenviable reputation of 
being the instrument of the slaughter, and final dispersion 
of these martyrs of Jesus, is Victor Amadeus II., the Duke 
of Savoy. He, being instigated by the Catholic clergy, 
and goaded on by King Louis XIV. of France, deso- 
lated the peaceful valleys of the Waldenses with fire and 
sword in such a savage manner as should make humanity 
weep tears of blood, and move to pity the hearts of demons 
themselves. After the Waldenses had been brutally mur- 
dered in the valleys, driven over barren mountain snows 
into exile, or crowded into filthy prisons, we have the fol- 
lowing mournful account of the miseries of the survivors 
of the first slaughter : 

"The armies of France and Savoy, having inhumanly 
butchered a multitude of the Waldenses, 
committed more than twelve thousand of ' me ?.~ ^-io W,> 
them to prison, and dispersed two thousand 
of their children among the Catholics; concluding that 
their work was accomplished, they caused all their property 
to be confiscated. And thus were the valleys of Piedmont 
depopulated of their ancient inhabitants, and the light of 
the glorious Gospel extinguished in a country where, for 
many preceding centuries, it had shone with resplendent 
luster. 

In the month of September, 1686, the Swiss cantons 
convened a general assembly at Aran, to deliberate on the 
condition of those who were either imprisoned or in a 
state of exile in Piedmont; and they came to the resolu- 



388 The Waldensean (Period. 

tion of sending deputies to demand from the Duke the re- 
lease of all that were confined, and the privilege of quit- 
ting the country. The latter, probably by this time glutted 
with human carnage, signed a treaty, in consequence of 
which the prisons were set open, and leave given to such 
as had survived, to depart peaceably, through that part of 
Savoy which borders upon Berne and the territory of Ge- 
neva. But a bare recital of the miseries which the pris- 
oners had suffered during their confinement, is sufficient 
to sicken the heart. More than ten thousand persons were 
distributed among fourteen prisons or castles in Piedmont. 
They were fed for months upon bread and water — the 
former, in which were often found lime, glass, and filth of 
various kinds, w T as so bad as scarcely to deserve the name ; 
while the latter, in many instances brought from stagnant 
pools, was scarcely fit for the use of cattle. Their lodging 
was upon bricks or filthy straw. The prisons were so 
thronged that, during the heat of the summer months, they 
became intolerable, and deaths were daily taking place. 
"Want of cleanliness necessarily engendered diseases among 
them; they became annoyed with vermin, which prevented 
their sleep either by night or day. Many women in child- 
bearing were lost for the want of the care and comforts 
necessary to such a situation, and their infants shared the 
same fate. 

Such was the state of these afflicted and persecuted crea- 
tures, when the Duke of Savoy's proclamation was issued 
for releasing them. It was now the month of October ; 
the ground was covered with snow and ice; the victims of 
cruelty were almost universally emaciated through poverty 
and disease, and very unfit for the projected journey. The 
proclamation was made at the castle of Mondovi, for ex- 



Waldenses (Persecuted. 389 

ample, and at five o'clock the same evening they were tb 
begin a march of four or five leagues ! Before the morn- 
ing more than a hundred and fifty of them sunk under the 
burden of their maladies and fatigues, and died. The 
same thing happened to the prisoners at Fossan. A com- 
pany of them halted one night at the foot of Mount Cenis; 
when they were about to march the next morning, they 
pointed the officer who conducted them to a terrible tem- 
pest upon the top of the mountain, beseeching him to allow 
them to stay till it had passed away. The inhuman officer, 
deaf to the voice of pity, insisted on their marching, — the 
consequence of which was, that eighty-six of their number 
died, and were buried in that horrible tempest of snow. 
Some merchants, that afterward crossed the mountains, 
saw the bodies of these miserable people extended on the 
snow, the mothers clasping their children in their arms. 

It is but an act of justice, however, to add that, in some 
few instances, the officers who conducted the different 
troops of Waldenses out of the country treated them with 
more humanity. Their own historians admit the fact, and 
it ought to be recorded, that some took a particular care 
of them ; and certainly the picture that is drawn of their 
deplorable condition, is such as was well calculated to melt 
the most unfeeling heart to tenderness. The greater part 
of them were almost naked and without shoes ; and they 
all bore such striking marks of suffering and wretchedness 
that the very sight of them was enough to pierce the heart. 
Those who survived the journey, arrived at Geneva about 
the middle of December, but in such an exhausted state, 
that several expired between the two gates of the city, 
'finding the end of their lives in the beginning of their 
liberty/ Others were so benumbed with cold that they 



390 The Waldensean (Period. 

had not power to speak ; many staggered from faintness and 
disease ; while others, having lost the use of their limbs, 
were unable to lift up their hands to receive the assistance 
that was tendered them. 

At Geneva they experienced that kind and hospitable 
reception which was due to them as their fellow-creatures, 
and more especially as their persecuted Christian brethren. 
They clothed the naked, fed the hungry, succored the af- 
flicted, and healed the sick. But what pen can describe 
the affecting scene which now took place, while they halted 
at Geneva for rest and refreshment, before they proceeded 
forward into Switzerland ! Those who arrived first, natu- 
rally went out to meet those that came after, anxiously 
inquiring for their relations and friends, of whom they had 
heard nothing since the fatal catastrophe in the valleys of 
Piedmont. The father inquired after his child, and the 
child after its parent; the husband sought his wife, and the 
latter her partner in life. Every one endeavored to gain 
some intelligence of his friend or neighbor; but as three- 
fourths of them had died in prison or on the road, it exhib- 
ited a melancholy spectacle to see so many dissolved in 
tears at the distressing accounts they received. Their 
principal earthly comfort hoav arose from the hospitable 
kindness of the people of Geneva, who flocked around 
them and evinced such solicitude to conduct them to their 
own homes, that the magistrates of the city were obliged, in 
order to prevent confusion and disorder, to issue an injunc- 
tion prohibiting any from going out of the city. There 
was a noble emulation who should entertain the most sick, 
or those that were most afflicted. They received them not 
merely as strangers in distress, but as Christian brethren, 
who brought peace and spiritual blessings into their fami- 



Wcddenses (Persecuted. 391 

lies. All that needed clothing were either supplied by 
those that lodged thein, or by the Italian Bank, the direc- 
tors of which, from first to last, evinced all the marks of 
tender compassion and of disinterested kindness. 

But it was not only at Geneva that the Waldenses met 
with this kind and hospitable treatment. The cantons of 
Switzerland opened to them their country, and not their 
country only, but their hearts and affections also. The 
conduct of the Swiss, indeed, was so noble and disinter- 
ested throughout the whole of this distressing period, that 
it would be unjust to their memory to pass it over with a 
slight mention." 

It was in the memorable year 1686, that the valleys of 
Piedmont were " depopulated of their ancient inhabitants, 
and the light of the glorious Gospel extinguished in a country 
where, for many preceding centuries, it had shone with re- 
splendent luster" 

The people who have inhabited the valleys since the 
great slaughter of 1686, are not the same class of people 
with the ancient witnessing Waldenses. The poet Milton, 
who was secretary to Oliver Cromwell, composed the fol- 
lowing sonnet : 

ON THE LATE MASSACRE IN PIEDMONT. 

Avenge, Lord, thy slaughtered saints, whose bones 

Lie scattered on the Alpine mountains cold ; 

Even them who kept thy truth so pure of old, J ^f or y h ' 

When all our fathers worshiped stocks and stones, p . 374. 

Forget not. In thy book record their groans 

Who were thy sheep, and in their ancient fold 

Slain by the bloody Piedmontese, that rolled 

Mother with infant down the rocks. Their moans 

The vales redoubled to the hills, and they 

To heaven. Their martyred blood and ashes sow 



392 The Waldensean (Period. 

O'er all th' Italian fields where still doth sway 
The tripled tyrant, that from these may grow 
A hundred fold, who, having learned thy way, 
Early may fly the Babylonian woe. 

King Louis XIV. was mainly guilty of the final dread- 
ful slaughter and dispersion of the Waldenses. It was 
the French Catholics that perpetrated such monstrous 
barbarities upon the helpless women and children of the 
Waldenses. And the French Emperor has indorsed all 
these cruelties of his ancestors by supporting the Pope on 
his throne by his army at Rome. France, as a Catholic 
country, has indorsed all the outrages perpetrated against 
these afflicted servants of God. And as God has declared 
that he will avenge his elect that cry unto him day and 
night, all those countries which have taken part in the 
persecution of the " martyrs of Jesus/' may expect, in the 
day of vengeance, to drink blood ; for they " are worthy." 
It would seem that the dreadful cup of vengeance is now 
being pressed to the lips of France. As we are now pen- 
ning these lines, September, 1870, the news comes over the 
wires that the French armies are defeated in battle with 
dreadful slaughter, and that the Emperor Napoleon III. 
is a prisoner in the hands of the victorious King of Prus- 
sia. The cries of the souls of the martyrs under the altar 
will not always go unheeded. 

We have found that the ancient Waldenses possessed, in 
an eminent degree, the Baptist peculiarities. And, therefore, 
the dreadful slaughter of these servants of God was really 
the murder of the ancient Baptists, who were called Wal- 
denses. They were called " Anabaptists " all the time 
during this long period ; and they were called Baptists 
and Waldenses, interchangeably, toward the close of this 



False Churches. 393 



period. Though the period called the AYaldensean period 
closes with the year 1686, yet the people who were called 
"NValdenses were not annihilated. They were expelled 
from their ancient valleys ; but this only scattered them, 
as the good seed, among all the countries of Europe, from 
whence they appeared, about the time of Luther, under 
the names of Baptists and Anabaptists, eight hundred thous- 
and strong. It will be seen in the next chapter, that the 
descendants of the ancient Waldenses were called Baptists 
in Germany and England. 



Section III. — False churches which arose dur- 
ing THIS PERIOD. 

When we speak of false churches, we do not design to 
teach that there are no children of God in these false 
churches. Baptists are pleased to admit that some of 
God's children are to be found, more or less, in all the 
kingdoms and societies of men commonly called churches. 
Some persons say that Baptists unchristianize all others, 
because they will not admit that the societies to which 
they belong are true churches. It must not be forgotten 
that the Baptists differ from all others in the fact that 
they hold that persons must be saved, or prepared for 
heaven, before they are qualified to enter a Church of 
Christ. Some of the people of God are identified with the 
various political and benevolent societies ; and must we 
admit that all these are churches of Christ, because they 
have converted persons in them ? 

Just as certainly as there are false Christians in the 
world, there are also false churches in the world. It is a 
sad truth that there are many false Christians connected 



394 The Waldensean (Period. 



with true churches, and many real saints connected with 
false churches. But it is evident that, for the glory of 
God and the advancement of his cause, all false Christians 
should be separated from the true churches, and all God's 
dear children should forsake false churches, and become 
identified with the kingdom of Jesus Christ. 

First: The Roman Catholic Church. — This is evi- 
dently a false church, because it is wholly destitute of the 
peculiar characteristics of the Church of Christ. I find 
that I shall only have space to name a few leading facts 
in regard to these false churches. It is but just to admit 
that the Romish Church is the most powerful religious 
organization that has ever opposed the cause of God in the 
world ; and it is the oldest and most powerful false church 
on earth. Its underlying principles of legalism had com- 
menced their work of moral death and ruin in the time 
of the apostles. These principles were developed into 
baptismal salvation, infant baptism, and the hierarchy, in 
the early part of the third century. And after the rejec- 
tion or casting out of the corrupt elements by the true 
churches, the union of the corrupt church with the state 
took place under the Emperor Constantine the Great, in 
the year A. D. 312. We may safely locate the origin of 
the Catholic Church with the union with the state at this 
time. The first General Council was that of Nice, in the 
year 325. The blasphemous title of " Universal Bishop " 
was conferred on Boniface III., Bishop 
Dowling'sHis.of of Rom ^ by the Emperor phocas, in the 

' P ' year A. D. 606. Thus the Bishop of Rome 

is made the head of the Catholic Church throughout the 
world. 

But it was not until the year 756 that the Pope became 



Church of (Rome. 395 

a temporal sovereign. King Pepin, of France, subdued 
the Lombards, and delivered the places 
wrested from Aistulphus, their king, to ow in 9 s ls - °J 
Pope Stephen. From this time forward, 
the popes have claimed both the spiritual and the tempo- 
ral sword. The universal spiritual dominion came from 
the Emperor Phocas, who was a usurper and murderer, 
and the temporal kingdom was bestowed on the Pope by 
the usurper of the French throne, King Pepin. From the 
year 756, the usurpations of the popes were outrageous in 
the extreme. The Pope finally set up and pulled down 
kings at his pleasure. As early as the year 710, the Em- 
peror Justinian showed his great respect for Pope Con- 
stantine by kissing his feet, and beseeching his " Holi- 
ness " to intercede for the pardon of his sins. It was in 
the year 1075 that Pope Gregory VII. excommunicated 
the Emperor Henry IV., in the following haughty lan- 
guage : " 'In the name of Almighty God, 

and by your authority/ said Gregory, al- n in 9 s ^ S - J 

,. -, n -it -Rom., $. 243. 

ludmg to the members of the council, 6 1 

prohibit Henry, the son of our Emperor Henry, from gov- 
erning the Teutonic Kingdom and Italy; I release all 
Christians from their oath of allegiance to him; and I 
strictly forbid all persons from serving or attending him as 
king. 7 " And Henry finally submitted himself to the 
haughty Gregory by " continuing for three days, in the 
cold month of January, barefoot and fasting ; the humbled 
emperor was admitted into the palace, and allowed the 
superlative honor of kissing the Pope's toe:' The popes 
have not only claimed authority in the kingdoms of this 
w r orld, by exalting themselves above kings and emperors, 
but they have even attempted to usurp the very seat and 



396 The Walciensean (Period. 

throne of God himself. .Instead of holding that Jesus is 

the Head of the church, the popes have u Inculcated and 

acted upon the pernicious and extravagant 

ow ing s is. oj max j m < THAT THE BlSHOP OF KOME 18 
Rom., p. 293. ; 

THE SUPREME LORD OF THE UNIVERSE, 

AND THAT NEITHER PRINCES NOR BISHOPS, CIVIL GOV- 
ERNORS NOR ECCLESIASTICAL RULERS, HAVE ANY LAW- 
FUL power in Church or State but what they de- 
rive from him/ " And the General Council at Eome has 
recently indorsed this awful blasphemy of the Pope by de- 
claring his infallibility. Instead of holding the Word 
of God as the rule of action, Rome holds tradition and 
the authority of the Pope as her rule of action. Prof. W. 
J. Walters, in his History of the Roman Catholic Church, 
says : " The Catholic Church maintains 
IT 9 C B 142 there are doctrines of essential import- 

ance not contained in the Scriptures ; as, 
for instance, the lawfulness and obligation of keeping holy 
the Sunday instead of the Saturday, the real Scriptural 
Sabbath ; the validity of infant baptism," etc. This learned 
Catholic historian admits that the Romish Church holds 
traditions, such as infant baptism, which are not in the 
Bible. Catholics, in this respect, are more candid than 
Protestants ; for, while Protestants pervert the Scriptures 
to try to sustain the infant rite, the Catholics admit that 
it is only a Romish tradition. And in their controversies 
with Protestants, the Catholics press on them the fact that 
they have only copied infant baptism as a tradition from 
Rome. In the celebrated discussion between Mr. Pope, 
an Episcopalian, and Mr. Maguire, a Catholic priest, Mr. 

■ Maguire says : " I called on* my opponent to 

Debate,?. 164. ° J > - a • , ±i • • 

produce proofs from Scripture, authorizing 



Church of (Rome. 397 



the baptism of infants. " But Mr. Pope was unable to do 
this. And as to the Bible order, the Catholic Church 
claims a perfect right to change laws and customs, and, 
therefore, she does not pretend to hold the Bible order of 
the commandments. And in regard to the burial in bap- 
tism, the learned Catholics admit that immersion was the 
primitive apostolic practice * therefore they are, by their 
own admissions, destitute of this mark of the true church. 
It is a well known fact that the doctrine of baptismal 
salvation is peculiarly Catholic doctrine. Prof. Walters, 
their historian, says : " Catholics believe 
that, by the sacrament of baptism, men are T r^fp U ^ mo J^» 
cleansed from sin, as well original as ac- 
tual, and made members of the Church of Christ, adopted 
children of God, and heirs of the kingdom of heaven/ 

And the Council of Trent says : " Who- 

i_ n £c xi x i. x* • • i'£Q Cramp's His. Court. 
ever shall amrm that baptism is mdmer- f T \ 12q 

ent — that is, not necessary to salvation — 

let him be accursed." And the Catholic catechism affirms 

that: " i The law of baptism, as established 

by our Lord, extends to all, insomuch that, 

unless they are regenerated by the grace of baptism, be 

their parents Christians or infidels, they are born to eternal 

misery and everlasting destruction;' Catechism, p. 171." 

Rome maybe considered the " mother" of all churches 

which hold this popish view of baptism. Again, the Council 

of Trent says : " Whoever shall affirm that the " , 

■..!■! f* i Ibid. p. 129. 

true doctrine of the sacrament ot baptism is 

not in the Roman Church, which is the mother and mis- 
tress of all churches : let him be accursed." And we have 
already seen that there is no equality in the Church of 
Rome. The popes, cardinals, bishops, and priests, have 



398 The Waldensean . (Period. 

seized the reins of authority over the poor spiritual slaves 
' of the church. And as to their Supper, they have made 
a God of it, and they worship that God made by the hands 
of the priests. They suppose that the bread is literally the 
flesh, blood, and bones of Jesus. They worship the bread 
and eat it as a means of salvation. Rome has instituted 
her seven sacraments, all of which are unauthorized in 
the Bible. And, in the last place, as to the mark of be- 
ing persecuted, Rome has been the great persecuting power. 
She has been drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus 
for hundreds of years. She has never been persecuted for 
righteousness' sake. Some of her own sons have rebelled 
against her and slain some of her adherents ; but this is 
only the foretaste of the vengeance that will be poured out 
on her in the day of her destruction. 

It is a settled principle with the Church of Rome to 
persecute, and to extend her doctrines by fire and sword. 
At the present time, it will be impossible to give an accu- 
rate estimate of the numbers mtirdered by the Catholic 

emissaries. Mr. Dowling says: "From 
ow % g £ \ is. oj ^ e birth of popery, in 606, to the present 

time, it is estimated, by careful and cred- 
ible historians, that more than fifty millions of the 
human family have been slaughtered for the crime of 
heresy by popish persecutors — an average of more than 
forty thousand religious murders for every year of the 
existence of popery." And Mr. Dowling quotes Scott's 

Church History, as follows : " No compu- 

owmg s is.oj Nation can j^^h the numbers who have 
Rom., p. 542. 

been put to death, in different ways, on 

account of their maintaining the profession of the Gospel, 

and opposing the corruptions of the Church of Rome. A 



The Lutheran Church. 399 

million of poor AValdenses perished in France ; nine 
hundred thousand orthodox Christians were slain in 
less than thirty years after the institution of the order 
of Jesuits. The Duke of Alva boasted of having put to 
death, in the Netherlands, thirty-six thousand, by the 
hand of the common executioner, during the space of a few 
years. The Inquisition destroyed, by various tortures, 

ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY THOUSAND within thirty 

years. These are a few specimens, and but a few, of those 
which history has recorded; but the total amount will 
never be known till the earth shall disclose her blood, and 
no more cover her slain." 

The half has not been told. Rome has taxed her in- 
genuity in the invention of instruments of torture, to 
cause, if possible, the martyrs to blaspheme. The gloomy 
prisons of the Inquisition were frightful beyond concep- 
tion. And besides all the murders committed by the 
instigation of Rome, the admitted profligacy of the popes, 
bishops, and priests, is too disgraceful to mention. Even 
many of the ancient nunneries were sinks of pollution. 
And after all the known enormities of papal Rome, we are 
told that she is the Church of God visible. There can 
be no reasonable doubt that the Roman Catholic Church 
is a false church. Her rise was gradual, and her decline 
has been the same way ; but at last she will be destroyed 
with violence, as when a mighty mill-stone is cast into 
the sea. 

Second: The Lutheran Church. This Protestant 
church owes its existence to Doctor Martin Luther, who 
was reared in the bosom of Rome, and became a supersti- 
tious monk. Luther was a man of energy and learning. 
He boldly assailed some of the most absurd features of the 



400 The Waldensean (Period. 

Romish despotism, about the year 1520; and in 1524 he 
threw off the " monastic dress," and married a nun. It is 
usually stated that the Lutheran Church began in 1525. 
It was in the year 1529 that the Reformers entered their 
protest against the action of the German Diet of Spires. 
" Hence arose the name of Protestant" by which the Re- 
formers have since been known. Martin Luther may 
very properly be styled the founder and head of this 
church. As an organization, it did not have Jesus as its 
founder and head. And . instead of taking the Bible as 
their rule of conduct, the Lutherans are governed by the 
" Augsburg Confession," with the various additions in the 
way of articles, catechisms, etc. They have failed to ob- 
serve the order of the commandments ; for they put what 
they term baptism before faith, in the case of infants, and 
do not bury in baptism at all. Luther retained many of 
the superstitions of t\\Q Church of Rome. He taught 

"That the body and blood of Christ are 
uTqb^' Anally present, under- the form or em- 

blems of bread and wine, as dispensed to 
the communicants." — Art. 10, Augsburg Confession. 

This was called con-siibstantiation. And, notwithstand- 
ing Luther preached "justification by faith alone," yet he 
nullified this doctrine by teaching baptism for salvation. 
"We have the following statements of Luther, on the efficacy 
of baptism, as given by Elder T. W. Haynes, editor of 

the Carolina Baptists " Luther, in his pre- 
Carolina Baptist fe h ^.^ ^ the Gajati 

vol. L 1845, p. 29. . r . & 

24, hurls his thunderbolts alike against 

Christ and Antichrist, the Baptists and Papists : ' For at 
this day the Papists and Anabaptists conspire together 
against the church in this one point (though they dissem- 



The Lutheran Church. 401 

ble in words) , that the work of God dependeth upon the 
worthiness of the person. For thus do the Anabaptists 
teach that baptism is nothing, except the person do believe/ 
* * * < Who seeth not here in the Anabaptists men not 
possessed with devils, but even devils themselves possessed 
with worse devils/ (page 24). What Baptist does not 
recognize as an article of his faith, the doctrine, ' that bap- 
tism is nothing, except the person do believe f ' Now, whether 
the Scripture doctrine of justification by faith alone be 
not uprooted by Luther himself, is submitted to the con- 
sideration of the candid. In his Commentary on Gala- 
tians 3': 27, Luther says : 'And here also he (Paul) saith, 
that all they who have been baptized have put on Christ. 
As if he had said, ye are carried out of the law by a new 
birth which is wrought in baptism. Therefore, ye are not 
now any longer under the law, but ye are clothed in a new 
garment — namely, the righteousness of Christ. Wherefore 
baptism is a thing of great force and efficacy/ (vide in loco). 
Of how great force and efficacy, may be learned from his 
Catechism, as published by the Lutheran (Tennessee) 
Synod, page 3. i Secondly : What does baptism confer or 
benefit? Ans. — It effects the forgiveness of sins, delivers 
from death and the devil, and confers everlasting salvation 
upon all who believe it, as the words and promises of God 
declare/ As also from the Augsburg Confession (article 9, 
of Baptism), 'concerning baptism, they teach that it is 
necessary to salvation, and that in baptism the grace of 
God is offered, and that children are to be baptized, who, 
being offered unto God in baptism, are to be received into 
the favor of God. They condemn the Anabaptists, who 
prohibit the baptism of children, and affirm that children 
can be saved without baptism.' " This important quota- 



402 The Waldensean (Period. 

tion shows that Luther, the father of the Lutheran church, 
not only inherited the Romish dogma of baptismal salva- 
tion, but he also inherited the Romish spirit of persecution. 
He affirmed that baptism is necessary to the salvation of in- 
fants; and Luther, with tlffe rest of the Augsburgers, con- 
demned the unfortunate Baptists because they affirmed that 
" children can be saved without baptism" And Luther's 
condemnation of the Baptists for the terrible crime of de- 
nying infant baptism, was so strong that he calls them 
" devils themselves, possessed with worse devils." Thus we 
find that the Lutheran Church retained the leading feature 
of Antichrist.' And instead of holding religious equality 
in the government of the church, they are governed by a 
kind of spiritual aristocracy. And though they made war 
with their old Mother Rome, yet they combined with her 
to persecute the hated Baptists. They are not the church 
that has borne persecution through the dark ages for the 
sake of Jesus Christ. The Lutheran Church is the first- 
born, in modern times, of the old mother of "abomina- 
tions." Her founder, Luther, had his baby baptism, and 
ordination in Rome. The Catholics pressed the Protest- 
ants sorely with this difficutly. In their embarrassment 
they admitted that the Church of Rome was the true church 
of Christ visible, at least till after the coming out of the 
Protestant churches. But if she was the Church of Christ, 
or temple of God, through all the dark ages, while riding 
the scarlet beast and drunk with the blood of the martyrs, 
certainly she must be the true church till now. She has 
become no worse after the Reformation than before. On 
this point Luther says, as reported by Mr. Haynes, that : 
" Wherefore, wheresoever the substance of the word and 
sacraments remaineth, there is the holy church, although 



The Liiiliercm Church, 403 

Antichrist there reign, who (as the Scripture witnesseth) 
sitteth not in a stable of fiends, or in a swine sty, or in a 
company of infidels, but in the highest and holiest place 
of all — namely, ' in the temple of God/ 2 Thess. 2 : 4. 
'Wherefore, although spiritual tyrants reign, yet there 
must be a temple of God, and the same must be preserved 
under them. Therefore, I answer briefly to this question, 
that the church is universal throughout the whole world, and 
wheresoever the Gospel of God and the sacraments are/ " 
This was Luther's answer to the question : " Where was 
Protestant religion antecedent to Luther ? " 

Thus the renowned Luther is driven to the painful 
necessity of taking the position that the Romish Church 
was the temple of God under the reign of "spiritual 
tyrants." This comment of Luther is found in his Com- 
mentary on Galatians 1:2: "Unto the churches of Gala- 
tia." But if Rome was the church universal and the 
"temple of God," then Luther and all the "Protestants" 
were cast out of the temple of God when they were ex- 
cluded from the Catholics; but, on the other hand, if 
Rome is the "great whore" of Babylon, as the Protestants 
affirm, then the Protestant churches are false churches, 
having emanated from Antichrist. "Who can bring a 
clean thing out of an unclean ?" Let the Protestants take 
either horn of the dilemma, and they are pushed to the 
wall. As a daughter of the old bloody "mother," the 
Lutheran Church began her career by taking the car- 
nal sword to convert men to the religion of Jesus by 
killing them ! She also took part with her bloody mother 
in shedding the blood of Baptists. And this same Lutheran 
Church has entered into marriage with the state in every 
land where she has had the opportunity. The Lutheran 



404 Ike Waldensean Period. 

Church can no more be the Church of Christ visible than 
old Rome can be that church. 

Third: The Episcopal Church originated as early as 
the year 1530, when Henry VIIL, King of England, 
rebelled against the Pope. Henry's rupture with the 
Pope grew out of the Pope's refusal to divorce the king 
from his wife, Catharine, to marry Anne Boleyn. The 
king divorced himself, and married the maid of honor to 
his former wife; and in the year 1530, he forced the 
Catholic clergy to proclaim himself as the "supreme head 
of the Church of England" But it was not till 1534 that 
the British parliament confirmed the adulterous king in 
his headship of the church. Of the Church of England, 
Mr. Orchard says : " The daughter of Rome was borji in 
England, 1530, when Wareham, Archbishop of Canter- 
bury, and the clergy of his diocese, in synod, declared 
Henry VIII. the putative parent of the English harlot, 
and the same was legally affiliated to him in 1534." 
And down to the present time, the kings and queens of 
England are regarded as the head of the church. This 
church has none of the marks of a true church. It, 
like its founder, was polluted with adultery and mur- 
der; for it was a state church from the beginning, and 
has engaged in the persecution of the Baptists by impris- 
onments and burning. This church, like the Lutheran, 
was only a part of the Romish Antichrist broken off, and 
she retained all the leading features of Antichrist. She 
inherited from her mother the doctrine of baptismal sal- 
vation. In the Episcopal Prayer Book, we have the fol- 

Booh of Common lowin S as a P art of the service connected 
Prayer y pp. 180, with the baptism of infants : "Then shall 
181. the minister speak unto the god-fathers and 



The Episcopal Church. 405 

god-mothers on this ivise : Dearly beloved, ye have brought 
this child here to be baptized ; ye have prayed that our 
Lord Jesus Christ would vouchsafe to receive him, to re- 
lease him from sin, to sanctify him with the Holy Ghost, 
to give him the kingdom of heaven and everlasting life. 
Ye have heard also that our Lord Jesus Christ hath 
promised, in his Gospel, to grant all these things that ye 
have prayed for ; which promise he, for his part, will most 
surely keep and perform. Therefore, after this promise 
made by Christ, this infant must also faithfully, for his 
part, promise by you that are his sureties (until he come 
of age to take it upon himself) that he will renounce the 
devil and all his works, and constantly believe God's holy 
Word, and obediently keep his commandments. 

The minister shall then demand of the sponsors as fol- 
lows; the questions to be considered as addressed to them 
severally, and the answers to be made accordingly : I de- 
mand, therefore, Dost thou, in the name of this child, 
renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and 
glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, 
and the sinful desires of the flesh ; so that thou wilt not 
follow nor be led by them ? Ans. — I renounce them all ; 
and, by God's help, will endeavor not to follow nor be 
led by them. Minis. — Dost thou believe all the articles 
of the Christian Faith, as contained in the Apostles' 
Creed ? Ans. — I do. Minis. — Wilt thou be baptized in 
this faith ? Ans. — That is my desire. Minis. — Wilt thou, 
then, obediently keep God's holy will and commandments, 
and walk in the same all the days of thy life ? Ans. — I 
will, by God's help. 

Tlien shall the minister say, O Merciful Gob, 
grant that the old Adaia in this child may be so 



406 The Waldensean (Period. 

buried, that the new man may be raised up in him. 

Amen. 

Grant that all sinful affections may die in him, and that 

all things belonging to the Spirit may live and grow in 

him. Amen," etc. And after the baptism of the child, the 

minister is requested to say : " We yield 

10 ' r ^ thee hearty thanks, most merciful Father, 
er, p. 182. . 

that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this 

infant with the Holy Spirit, to receive him for thine own 
child, by adoption, and to incorporate him into thy holy 
church," etc. The reader is referred to the entire bap- 
tismal service, where he will see that the English Church 
has fully copied the Romish doctrine of baptismal salva- 
tion. They pray for the release of the infant from sin; 
that the old Adam may die in him, and that he may be 
delivered from the power of the Devil in baptism ; and 
after baptism they thank God that the infant is " regener- 
ated " and a child of God. 

The same God-dishonoring doctrine of baptismal salva- 
tion is also taught in the catechism for children. Here it 
is : " Q. — Who gave you this name ? A. — 
My sponsors m baptism : wherein 1 was 
made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inher- 
itor of the kingdom of heaven." Again : " Q. — How is the 
child made a member of Christ. A. — It is made a member 
of his church. Q. — How is it made a child of God f A. — 
It is taken into God's family. Q. — What was it before 
this. A. — Born in sin, a child of wrath." And once more : 
" Q. — What is it you thank God, your heavenly Father, for, 
when you thank him that he has called you to this state 
of salvation ? A. — I thank him that in baptism he has 
made me a member of Christ, the child of God, and an 



The Episcopal Church. 407 

inheritor of heaven." Such are the fatal delusions im- 
posed on the poor children that are led by these blind 
guides. It is altogether out of the question to suppose 
that this church is a church of Jesus Christ. Some, who 
ought to know better, regard the Episcopal Church as 
" evangelical " ! 

Fourth: The Presbyterian Church was established in 
the year 1541 by John Calvin, a learned French Catho- 
lic, who repudiated the supremacy of the Pope, and es- 
tablished himself at Geneva, in Switzerland, as the head 
of the Presbyterian Church. This church, like the others, 
has a human founder and head ; it is governed by the 
Westminster Confession of Faith ; it does not observe the 
Bible order of the commands, for it puts "baptism" before 
repentance and faith ; it does not bury in baptism ; it has 
a hierarchy for a church government, in which one member 
is placed in authority above another; it does not confine 
its communion to the regenerate, and it has bitterly perse- 
cuted the Baptists for the sake of conscience. This church 
holds baptismal salvation in more modified terms than the 
older churches of the Reformation. In the Confession of 
Faith, Larger Catechism, Question 165 : 
" WJiat is baptism f A. — Baptism is a sac- 01 $?T' °^ a% ' 
rament of the New Testament, wherein 
Christ hath ordained the washing with water, in the name 
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
to be a sign and seal of ingrafting into himself, of remis- 
sion of sins by his blood, and regeneration by the Spirit ; 
of adoption and resurrection unto everlasting life; and 
whereby the parties baptized are solemnly admitted into 
the visible church, and enter into an open and professed 
engagement to be wholly and only the Lord's." Again, 



408 The Waldensean (Period. 

in answer to question 177, we have the following : " The 
sacraments of baptism and the Lord's 
oryess. of at , g U pp er (Jiff er ^ [ n that, baptism is to be ad- 
ministered but once, with water, to be a 
sign and seal of our regeneration and ingrafting into Christ, 
and that even to infants ; whereas the Lord's Supper is to 
be administered often/' etc. Thus, according to Presby- 
terianism, baptism is a "seal" of ingrafting into Christ, 
of remission of sins, regeneration, adoption, the resurrec- 
tion and eternal life, and this even to infants. But if 
baptism is a seal of all these blessings, and of the cov- 
enant of grace, it is necessary to salvation. 

We now conclude this chapter, remarking however, 
first, that various branches have gone out from these three 
leading Protestant churches, which originated in the six- 
teenth century. And, beside all the other disqualifica- 
tions, these churches want about fifteen hundred years 
of being old enough to claim to be the church that Jesus 
Christ established ; they all came out of the Church of 
Rome ; their ordinances came from Antichrist ; they have 
all persecuted the Baptists for the sake of conscience, and 
they are all state churches, in every land where it is pos- 
sible for them to establish themselves. And, while many 
good men belong to these churches, we must conclude that 
they are not the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ. 



(Baptist Succession. 409 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MODERN BAPTIST PEEIOD— ABOUT THREE HUNDRED 
AND FIFTY YEARS. 

1. Peculiarities applied to the Modern Baptists. 

2. Distinction between the Ancient and Modern Men- 

NONITES. 

Section I. — Peculiarities applied to the mod- 
ern baptists. 

This application has already been made more especially 
to the American Baptists. Of course, it is not necessary 
to prove that the Baptists possess the Baptist peculiarities ; 
but I design mainly in this section to develop the seventh 
peculiarity, which has reference to the persecutions of the 
true churches in Germany and England. Mosheini, the his- 
torian, testifies that the Baptists, or Anabaptists, as he calls 
them, of his times, claimed the Bible as their only rule of 
faith and conduct in matters of religion. But it is so 
generally admitted, by friends and foes, that Baptists claim 
no founder but Jesus Christ, and no standard of faith but 
the Bible, that it is useless to multiply authorities on these 
points. It has been observed that the different periods lap 
on each other, or, in other words, the modern Baptists ex- 
isted in various countries, under this name, before the close 
of the Waldensean period. The same class of people were, 
at the same time, called Waldenses in the valleys, and Bap- 
tists or Anabaptists in other countries. Our enemies apply 
the name Anabaptists to us even to the present time. All 



410 Modern (Baptist (Period. •• 

Baptists hold immersion as the only Scriptural action of 
baptism. 

The Catholics fell into the practice of trine immersion, 
or, rather, three immersions, for baptism ; but Baptists, by 
whatever name called, have ever held the apostolic practice 
of "one baptism." Catholics also practiced nude baptism 
in their early history. Some modern Pedobaptists have 
been so silly as to reproach Baptists on account of the 
" naked " baptisms of the Catholics ; but they only exposed 
the nakedness of their own " mother" church. The Cath- 
olics practice the " baptism" of abortives. In their pious zeal 
to save infants from hell, the Romish Church gives " bap- 
tism " to unborn infants, in cases where death is expected. 
This is the present custom in this country. But it is 
unnecessary to reproach all Pedobaptists with such abomi- 
nations — though this is as Scriptural as any other baby 
baptism. Baptists neither baptize infants nor adults 
without the profession of repentance, faith, and regenera- 
tion, on the part of the candidate. 

Luther anathematized the Baptists of his times because 
they taught that infants could be saved without baptism. 
Zuingle, the co-reformer with Luther and Calvin, had 
several public debates with the Baptists, at Zurich, in 1525, 
on infant baptism. The Zuinglians claimed the victory, 
and proceeded to put the Baptists in prison. The ruling 
magistrates of the city give the following hard report of 
these Baptists, as reported in the Martyrology : 

" ' Ye doubtless know, and have heard from many per- 

%i . , n sons, how that for a loner time past certain 

Martyrology, p. 9. ° r 

men, who appear to be learned, have ve- 
hemently arisen, and, without any support from the Holy 
Scriptures, have pretended, and preached among simple 



(Baptists against (Baptismal Salvation. 411 

and pious men (who are otherwise well instructed in the 
love of God and of their neighbor, and live in peace with 
one another,) and without the permission and consent of 
the church have proclaimed, that infant baptism is not of 
God, but has sprung from the Devil, and, therefore, ought 
not to be practiced. They have also invented a re-baptism ; 
and many men, unlearned in the holy Scripture, taken with 
their vain talk and so far persuaded, have received this 
re-baptism, esteeming themselves better than other people. 
Whence have arisen and grown up discord, disobedience, 
contention, devourings, strifes against love, in places and 
among men who formerly lived in unanimity. Therefore 
have we imprisoned, and punished for their good, some of 
the authors of Anabaptism and their disciples, and have 
twice, at their desire, ordained conferences, or disputations, 
on infant and re-baptism." 

According to this representation, these Baptists regarded 
infant baptism as the invention of the u Devil " ; and no 
wonder; for their ancestors had been slain by multitudes 
for rejecting the infant ceremony, and German Baptists 
were constantly imprisoned and punished for the same of- 
fense. And after all the victories gained over the de- 
spised Anabaptists in the public disputes, these enemies 
admit that "many men" " received this re-baptism"; and 
the Baptists were still ready for other public controversies. 
And if the Pedobaptists were so successful as they pre- 
tended, why w r as it necessary to imprison and punish the 
Baptists? These persecutions were from Protestants. 
These martyr Baptists were not in favor of baptismal sal- 
vation. This is seen in the charges against George Wag- 
ner, who was burned by the Catholics in 1527. We have 
the following account of the martyrdom of this Baptist: 



412 Modem (Baptist (Period. 

" George Wagner, of Emmerick, was apprehended at 
Munich, in Bavaria, on account of four articles of faith. 
First, that the priests can (not) forgive men their sins. 

Secondly, he does not believe that a man can 
lf> 18 bring God from heaven. Thirdly, he does 

not believe that God, or Christ, is bodily 
in the bread that the priests place upon the altar; but 
that it is the bread of the Lord. Fourthly, he holds not 
the belief that the baptism of water saves men. For these 
articles, because he would not retract them, was he put to 
great torture, so that the prince had great compassion on 
him, visited him in person in prison, and earnestly ex- 
horted him, saying that he would call him his friend dur- 
ing his life. In like manner, the steward of the prince's 
household persuaded him to recant, and made him many 
promises. Finally, his wife and child were brought into 
the prison and placed before him, to move him thereby to 
a recantation. He suffered not himself to be moved, but 
said, that though his wife and child were indeed so dear 
to him, that the prince with his whole land could not pur- 
chase them from him, yet, nevertheless, he would not for- 
sake the Lord his God. Many priests, and others like- 
wise, came to him, to persuade him ; but he was firm and 
immovable in what God had given him to know. He was 
finally condemned to the flames and to death. When he 
was delivered over to the executioner, and led into the 
middle of the city, he said, ' This day will I confess my 
God to the glory of Christ Jesus, that such happiness is 
afforded me in the sight of all the world/ His face was 
not pale, nor were his eyes distorted. With a smile play- 
ing on his lips he went to the fire, where the executioner 
bound him to the ladder, and hung a bag of gunpowder 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 413 

to his neck ; to whom he said, ' Be it thus in the name of 
the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost/ And 
when he had, with a smiling countenance, taken leave of a 
Christian brother, he was thrust into the fire by the exe- 
cutioner, and blessedly offered up his spirit the 8th day of 
February, in the year 1527. But the sheriff, surnamed 
der Eisen Reich of Landsberg, -intending and wishing, 
while riding home from the fire, to seize others, compan- 
ions of his faith, died suddenly in the night. He was in 
the morning found dead in his bed, and was thus snatched 
away by the wrath of God." 

It will be noted that Wagner, among other things, was 
burned to death for holding " not the belief that the bap- 
tism of water saves men." Luther condemned the Bap- 
tists as " devils possessed with worse devils," for rejecting 
baptismal salvation ; and Catholics burned them for the 
same offense. Neither could honors, his wife and child, 
nor life itself, induce this Baptist martyr to forsake the 
truth. 

Balthazar Hubmeyee and his w^ife were mar- 
tyred in Moravia in 1528, for their Baptist principles. 
Hubmeyer had been a Catholic preacher ; but when he 
became a Baptist he was persecuted by both Papists and 
Protestants. The Martyrology says : " This Balthazar 
Hubmever published in his time a tract, 
in which he complains of Zuingle and his Jf'jj^ PP- 
followers in these terms : i That they had 
proceeded so far as at one time to throw into a dark and 
miserable tower twenty persons, both men and pregnant 
women, widows and young females, and to pronounce this 
sentence upon them : that thenceforward they should see 
neither sun nor moon for the remainder of their lives, and 



414 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

be fed till their days were ended with bread and water. 
That they, therefore, should remain in the dark tower 
together, both the living and the dead, surrounded with 
filth and putrefaction, until not a single survivor of the 
whole remained/ i Likewise, that some of them had not 
taken a mouthful of bread for three days, in order that 
the rest might have the more to eat/ etc. 'O God!' he 
further writes, i what a hard, severe, cruel sentence upon 
pious Christian people, of whom no one could speak evil, 
only that they had received water baptism in obedience to 
the command of Christ ! ; O, sad deformation, say we, 
of these so-called reformed ! The Lord forgive them, and 
be merciful to their blindly zealous souls ! " 

Hubmeyer was for a while a Reformer with Zuingle, 
but he rejected infant baptism and joined the hated Bap- 
tists. Zuingle turned persecutor against him. In his con- 
troversy with Zuingle, Hubmeyer said : " Why, therefore, 

w do we baptize children? Baptism, they 
Martyrology, p. 72. . r . A • i • • 

say, is a mere sign. A sign truly it is, 

and a symbol instituted by Christ in most pregnant and 
august words. But it can not be made to apply to babes ; 
therefore is infant baptism without any authority what- 
ever. ' I believe and know/ he concludes, i that Chris- 
tendom shall not receive its rising aright, unless baptism 
and the Lord's Supper are brought to their original pur- 
ity.'» 

This last quotation shows that these Baptists regarded 
baptism as a " symbol ; " they did not adopt the idea of 
baptismal regeneration. Hubmeyer was put in prison by 
the Reformers at Zurich, and after many trials he escaped 
from the Protestants at Zurich and fell into the hands of 
the Catholics of Moravia, and was committed to the flames; 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 415 

and his wife, who had shared with him the sufferings of 
prison, was drowned at Vienna in the river Danube. 

Michael Settler and his wife were murdered by the Cath- 
olics. Satler was a Baptist preacher who descended from 
the Waldenses. The following is the cruel sentence against 
him : " ' Between the Stadtholder of his 
imperial majesty and Michael Satler, is ™ 2/ ?0 W>P- 
made known the following sentence : That Michael Satler 
be delivered over to the executioner, who shall bring him 
to the place of execution and cut out his tongue ; he shall 
then throw him upon a cart, and twice tear his flesh with 
red-hot pincers ; he shall then be brought to the city gate, 
and shall have his flesh five times torn in like manner/ 
This was accordingly done ; after which, as a heretic, he 
was burned to ashes. Of his companions, the brethren 
were executed by the sword, and the sisters were drowned. 
His wife, after much entreaty, exhortation, and threaten- 
ing had been employed, remaining immovable, was some 
days after likewise drowned. This took place on the 25th 
of May, anno 1527." 

The Baptists of these troublous times certainly had 
the mark of being persecuted. The Catholic Emperor, 
Charles V., issued an edict in 1535, against the Baptists. 
After addressing all his officers, the emperor proceeds : 
" l In order to provide against and remedy 
the errors and seductions which many sec- .. oJf^ ^' ^ 
taries and authors of mischief, with their 
followers, have dared to sow and spread in our posses- 
sions, in opposition to our holy Christian faith, the sacra- 
ments and commands of the holy church our mother ; we 
have at various times decreed, caused to be made and pro- 
claimed, many mandates, containing statutes, edicts, and 



416 Modem (Baptist (Period. 



ordinances, together with punishments that transgressors 
should suffer : in order that by such means the common 
and simple people, and others, might guard themselves 
against the aforesaid errors and abuses, and that their 
chief promoters and sectaries might be punished and cor- 
rected, as an example to all. And it having come to our 
knowledge that, notwithstanding our aforesaid mandates, 
many and various sectaries (even some who are denomi- 
nated Anabaptists, or re-baptizers) have promoted, and 
are daily promoting, the spreading, sowing, and secret 
preaching of their said abuses and errors, in order to draw 
over to their false doctrine and reprobate sect a great num- 
ber of men and women, in order to mislead the same, and 
some of them to re-baptize, to the great scandal and con- 
tempt of the sacrament of holy baptism, and of our edicts, 
statutes, and ordinances : therefore, being desirous to pro- 
vide against and remedy the same, we summon and com- 
mand, that, from this time, having seen these presents, 
you make proclamation, in' all the parts and limits of your 
jurisdiction, that all who are, or shall be found to be, in- 
fected by the accursed sect of Anabaptists, or re-baptizers, 
of what state or condition soever they be, their abettors, 
followers, and accomplices, shall suffer the forfeiture of 
life and estate, and shall, without any delay, be brought 
to the severest punishment ; that is to say, they who re- 
main obstinate, and harden themselves in their wicked 
. opinions and purposes, or who have seduced and re-bap- 
tized any person, or who have borne and had the n&me 
of prophets, apostles, or bishops, [shall be put to death] 
by fire. And all other sorts of people, who have been re- 
baptized, or who secretly and with previous counsel have 
harbored any of the said Anabaptists, or re-baptizers, and 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 417 

who renounce their evil purposes and opinions, and sin- 
cerely repent, and are sorry for the same, [shall be put to 
death] with the sword, and the women in a sunken pit. 

And in order the better to come to the knowledge of these 
Anabaptists, or re-baptizers, their adherents and accom- 
plices, we expressly command all our subjects, that they 
make known the same, and deliver them up to the officer 
of the place where they reside, or where they shall be 
found. And if any one know of any of this sect, or be 
acquainted with them, and do not deliver them up to the 
officer where they reside, the same shall be punished as an 
abettor, or accomplice, of such sect of re-baptizers. And 
he that delivers them up, or makes them known, shall 
have a third part of the estate confiscated, so far as the 
accused shall be convicted. 

Forbidding, moreover, all our subjects to claim or seek 
any grace, forgiveness, or reconciliation, for the said Ana- 
baptists, or re-baptizers, or to present, on their behalf, any 
petitions or requests, on pain of being punished at our 
pleasure. It being understood, that it is not our will, nor 
will we permit, that any Anabaptists, or re-baptizers (be- 
cause of their wicked opinions) shall be received into fa- 
vor, but be punished as a warning to others, without any 
dissimulation, favor, or delay. And in order so to do, in 
all things appertaining thereto, w^e give you, and each of 
you for himself, full powder and special command. 

Given at Brussels, under our seal hereto affixed, and 
now printed, the 10th day of June, A. D. 1535. Under 
the sanction of the Emperor and his Council, and under- 
signed, Pensart." 

This terrible edict was issued by a Catholic emperor. 
But the following is from the Protestants : 



418 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

"Of a certain Proclamation published at Zu- 
rich against the Baptists, A. D. 1525. — At this time 

U/r -i , ' r not only the Papists, but likewise the Re- 
Martyrol,j)ipA,5. J . r ,. , „ _. 

lormed, call Zumglians, mtne town of Zu- 
rich, laid hands on the simple, harmless sheep of Christ; 
yet not (that we can find) to punish them with death, or by 
an executioner to deprive them of life; but they put them 
in close confinement, until (as may be concluded) death at 
last followed. 

But in order to determine what measures from that time 
forward should be employed, the following ordinance, ac- 
companied by many more words, was issued by the magis- 
trates of that city : 

i Therefore we ordain, and it is our will, that hence- 
forward all men, women, young men, and maidens, ab- 
stain from re-baptism, and from this time practice it no 
more ; and that they bring the young children to be bap- 
tized. Por whoever shall act contrary to this public or- 
der, shall, as often as it occurs, be punished by a fine of a 
mark of silver ; and if any shall be altogether disobedient 
and rebellious, they shall be dealt with severely ; for we 
will protect the obedient, and punish the disobedient ac- 
cording to his deserts, without further forgiveness. Let 
each one act accordingly. 

And all this we confirm by letters patent, sealed with 
our city seal, and given on St. Andrew's Day, [Nov. 30,] 
anno 1525.' " 

After this proclamation the Protestants proceeded to 

harsher measures. They published the following in 1530 : 

" i Therefore we strictly command all the 
Martywlogy, pp. inhabitant8 of our land> and - those in any _ 

wise allied thereto, and especially the su- 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 419 

perior and inferior officers, sergeants, city officers, magis- 
trates, elders of churches, and ministers, wherever they 
shall discover any Anabaptists, that they make it known 
to us, according to the oath by which they are bound ; 
that they nowhere suffer the same, nor let them multiply, 
but seize them, and deliver them over to us ; for, accord- 
ing to the tenor of our laws, we will punish the Anabap- 
tists with death, together with those who sanction or follow 
them. Whosoever shall assist them, or abstain from giv- 
ing information concerning them, neither will pursue them, 
nor bring them prisoners, shall likewise be punished ac- 
cording to their deserts, and without any favor, as guilty 
of a breach of the fidelity and the oath which they have 
sworn to the ruling powers/ " 

Volumes might be filled with the details of the suffer- 
ings of the German and Dutch Baptists. They were per- 
secuted alike by Catholics and Protestants. The decrees 
of the Zuinglians were as cruel as that of Charles V. It 
will be seen that all the leading Protestant Reformers 
embraced the leading characteristic of Rome by persecut- 
ing the Baptists. It is a well known historic fact, that 
John Calvin, the founder of Presbyterianism, procured 
the death of Servetus on account of his Baptist principles. 
Concerning this bloody deed, Mr. Robinson remarks that : 
" Calvin did not blush to say : ' I ordered 

it so that a party should be found to ac- Eob ' s Eccl Ees -> 

A p 339 

cuse him, not denying that the action was F * 

drawn up by my advice/ What a glorious Reformation 
had been wrought in Geneva, when a proof of a man's 
Christianity lay in his humbly requesting the magistrates 
to burn a foreign gentleman over whom they had no juris- 
diction, for the honor of God and his eminent servant 



420 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

John Calvin." It is true that Servetus was accused of 

denying the doctrine of the Trinity ; but if this were true, 

Calvin had no right to burn him to death. Even the 

mild Melancthon indorsed the burning of Servetus. 

In regard to the persecutions under Luther, Mr. Curtis 

reports him as follows : " Luther says of false teachers : 

'I am very n verse to the shedding of 
Prog.Bapt.Prin., hloo ^ ^ suffident that they should 

be banished j 9 but he allows that they 
may be/ corrected and forced at least to silence — put under 
restraint as madmen.'' As to the Jews, he thought i their 
synagogues should be leveled with the ground, their houses 
burned, and their books — even the Old Testament — taken 
from them.' Several of the Anabaptists were also put to 
death by the Lutherans, ( for propagating their errors, con- 
trary to the judgment of the Landgrave of Hesse Cassel.' " 
In the year 1659 the Baptists were banished by the 
Presbyterians from Switzerland as being an " extremely 
dangerous and wicked sect." In the conclusion of this 
section, we proceed to give a few examples of the terrible 
sufferings of the Baptists in England. The leading Prot- 
estant authors do not conceal the bitterness of their oppo- 
sition to the Baptists. Mr. Neal, the historian, complains 
of the Baptists as follows : " The people of this persuasion 
Crosby's His. Big. were m °re exposed to the public resent- 
Bapt. y vol.I,pref., ment, because they would hold com- 
P- 5. munion with none but such as had been 

dipped. All," says he, " must pass under this cloud be- 
fore they could be received into their churches ; and the 
same narrow spirit prevails too generally among them 
even at this day." Mr. Crosby remarks that " Dr. Featly, 
. writing against the Baptists of his day, says : i He could 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 421 

hardly dip his pen in any other liquor than the juice 
of gall.' " These quotations develop the Crosby's His. Eng. 
fact that it was " close communion " Bapt.,vol. I, pre/., 
which caused Dr. Featly and others to P* 
dip their pens in the juice of gall when writing against the 
Baptists. In the time of King Edward VI., Joan Boucher, 
of Kent, was condemned as an " obstinate heretic " on ac- 
count of her Baptist principles. The king hesitated to 
consign her to the flames, because this would be equal to 
the cruelty of the Catholics. But Archbishop " Cranmer 
was employed to persuade him to sign the Burnetts His. Be/., 
warrant. He argued from the law of quoted by Crosby, 
Moses, by which blasphemers were to be vo1 - -? P- 49 - 
stoned. He told the king he made a great difference be- 
tween errors in other points of divinity, and those which 
were directly against the apostles' creed; that these were 
impieties against God, which a prince, as being God's 
deputy, ought to punish, as the king's deputies were 
obliged to punish offenses against the king's person. 
These reasons did rather silence than satisfy the young 
king, who still thought it a hard thing, as in truth it was, 
to proceed so severely in such cases ; so he set his hand to 
the warrant with tears in his eyes, saying to Cranmer, that 
if he did wrong, since it was in submission to his author- 
ity, he should answer for it to God. This struck the Arch- 
bishop with much horror, so that he was very unwilling 
to have the sentence executed ; and both he and Ridley 
took the woman, then in custody, to their houses, to see 
if they could persuade her. Bur she continued, by jeers 
and insolences, to carry herself so contemptuously, that at 
last the sentence was executed on her the 2d of May next 
year — Bishop Scorey preaching at her burning." 



422 Modem (Baptist (Period. 

This account, as given by Bishop Burnett, shows that 
both Cranmer and Ridley, who were themselves burned 
by the bloody Mary, were guilty of procuring the burn- 
ing of Joan of Kent. Joan was burned to death by these 
Protestant reformers for the crime of being a Baptist. 
Cranmer and Ridley are often held up before the world 
as martyrs; but it is justice to observe, that while they 
were in power, they persecuted and killed others for con- 
science sake, and when the Catholics came into author- 
ity, under Mary, they, in turn, suffered death. Whatever 
may be said of bishops Cranmer and Ridley, they were not 
martyrs for Jesus Christ; they were the murderers of 
others, and when the scale turned, they themselves were 
murdered by the Catholics. Mr. Crosby remarks that : 

" In the year 1550, about the end of De- 
Crosbifs His. Enq. i ,i ,i ,r . 

t> . 7 r oa cember, the same author assures us, that 
Bapt, vol. i, p. 80. } 

aiter many cavils in the State, an act 

passed for the king's general pardon, wherein the Ana- 
baptists are excepted. 'Last of all/ says the Bishop, 
(that is, of the acts made by this parliament) i came the 
king's general pardon, out of which those in the tower or 
other prisons, on the account of the State, as also all Ana- 
baptists, were excepted.'" Thus we have exhibited the 
bitterness of that hate against the Baptists which caused 
them to be retained in filthy prisons when others were 
pardoned. And this was under the mild reign of King 
Edward as the head of the Episcopal Church. 

We have the following account, as given by Mr. Pierce, 
of the effort of Mr. Fox to procure the mitigation of the 

n x. j tt- t? punishment of Joan : " ' Now,' says Mr. 
Crosby s His. Eng. r . 

Baptists, vol. i, pp. Fox, 'when the Protestant bishops had 
59, 60. resolved to put her to death, a friend of 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 423 

Mr. John Rogers, the divinity-reader in St. Paul's Church, 
came to him, earnestly desiring him to use his influence 
with the archbishop, that the poor woman's life might 
be spared, and other means used to prevent the spread- 
ing of her opinions, which might be done in time : urg- 
ing, too, that while she lived, she infected few with her 
opinions, yet she might bring many to think well of it by 
suffering death for it. He pleaded, therefore, that it was 
better she should be kept in some prison, without an op- 
portunity of propagating her notion among weak people, 
and so she would do no harm to others, and might live to 
repent herself. Rogers, on the other hand, pleaded she 
ought to be put to death. Well, then, says his friend, if 
you are resolved to put an end to her life, together with 
her opinion, choose some other kind of death more agree- 
able to the gentleness and mercy prescribed in the Gos- 
pel, — there being no need that such tormenting deaths 
should be taken up in imitation of the Papists. Rogers 
answered, that burning alive was no cruel death, but easy 
enough. His friend then hearing these words, which ex- 
pressed so little regard to a poor creature's sufferings, an- 
swered him with great vehemence, and striking Rogers' 
hand, which before he held fast, said to him : Well, per- 
haps, it may so happen that you yourselves shall have your 
hands full of this mild burning. And so it came to pass ; 
and Rogers was the first man who was burned in Queen 
Mary's time.' " 

Thus we learn that the great " martyr," John Rogers, 
was a murderer of a Baptist. He was not one of the mar- 
tyrs of Jesus ; for they did not persecute others on account 
of their religious views. These Protestant ministers of 
the Church of England were unwilling that a Baptist wo- 



424 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

man should have an easier death than burning. Such 
were the feelings of hatred against the members of that 
"sect" which was every-where spoken against. 

During the reign of the bloody Mary, a Baptist, origi- 
nally from Holland, by the name of David George, died 
in England. Speaking of him, Mr. Crosby says : " He 
died in the year 1556, and was honorably buried in St. 
Lawrence Church. Some time after his 

7 ' T n ^'r>A a ^ *' death, it was discovered that he was an 
vol. I, p. 64. } 

Anabaptist; upon which his house, and 
those of his followers, were searched, a certain number of 
divines and lawyers appointed to examine them, his opin- 
ions were condemned by an ordinance, his picture carried 
about and burnt, and his corpse taken up three years after 
buried and burnt, etc." It will be observed that the 
Church of England was Catholic or Protestant alternately, 
as it happened to have a Catholic or Protestant ruler on 
the throne ; and this bloody church persecuted the Bap- 
tists, both living and dead, whether it bore the name of 
Catholic or Protestant. Even the "good Queen" Eliza- 
beth found it necessary, in the year 1575, to persecute, 
with banishment, those Baptists who would not take a 
blasphemous oath in the renunciation of all and every 
Anabaptistical error." And even Mr. Fox, the Martyrol- 
ogist, indorsed the sentence of banishment against the Bap- 
tists. In his letter to Queen Elizabeth, Mr. Fox says: 

"Many others were condemned to exile — 
ros y s is. ng. a r jgj^ sen tence, in my opinion. But I 

hear there is one or two of these who are 
appointed to the most severe of punishments — viz : burn- 
ing — except your clemency prevent." But the letter of 
John Fox, pleading for the mitigation of their punish- 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 425 

merit, availed nothing; and these two Anabaptists were 
burned in Smithjield, by order of Queen .Elizabeth. The 
doctrine of the English Baptists, for which they were ban- 
ished and burned under the reign of Elizabeth, is stated 
by Dr. Some as follows : " That the ministers of the Gos- 
pel ought to be maintained by the volun- 

, .i ,. n r\ i Crosby's His. Enq. 

tary contributions of the people : 7? / 77 

That the civil power has no right to 
make and impose ecclesiastical laws : 

That people ought to have the right of choosing their 
own ministers : 

That the high-commission court was an anti-christian 
usurpation : 

That those who are qualified to preach, ought not to be 
hindered by the civil powers : 

That, tho ? the Lord's prayer be a rule and foundation 
of prayer, yet not to be used as a form ; and that no form 
of prayer ought to be imposed on the church : 

That the baptism administered in the Church of Rome 
is invalid : 

That a true condition and discipline is essential to a 
true church ; and that the worship of God in the Church 
of England is in many things defective. 

He touches but briefly on their opinion of baptizing 
believers only ; and brings up the rear with saying, they 
counted blasphemy for any man to arrogate to himself the 
title oi Doctor of Divinity — that is, as he explains it, to 
be called Rabbi, or Lord and Master of other men's faith." 

From the foregoing statement of Baptist doctrine, as 
held by the English martyrs, we find that they regarded 
the churches of Rome and England as false churches, and 
their baptism as invalid ; and that they regarded the as- 



426 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

sumption of the title of " Doctor of Divinity " as " blas- 
phemy." What will our modern D.D.'s think of this ? 

Enoch Clapham, writing against the English Baptists 
and others, in the year 1608, gives the following account 
of their doctrine, as reported by Crosby: "The Anabap- 
tists, according to his account, held, that 
Crosby* s His. Enq. , ■* « -.i . j i 

P t RR «Q repentance and faith must precede bap- 
tism ; that the baptism both of the church 
of England and of the Puritans was invalid, and that the 
true baptism was among them. He says further, that 
they complained against the term Anabaptist, as a name 
of reproach unjustly cast upon them. He also takes 
notice, that some of this opinion were Dutchmen, who, 
beside the denial of infant baptism, held, that it was un- 
lawful to bear arms : That Christ did not receive his 
human nature of the Virgin, but brought it down with him 
from heaven ; and agreed with the Roman Catholics in 
the doctrines of reprobation, free will, and justification. 
That there were others who went under this denomination 
that were Englishmen, to whom he does not so directly 
charge the former opinions, only the denial of their first 
baptism, and separating both from the established church, 
and other Dissenters; and says, that they came out from 
the Brownists, and that there was a congregation of them 
in Holland. When the Anabaptist is asked what religion 
he is of, he is made to answer : of the true religion, com- 
monly termed Anabaptism, from our baptizing." 

When the Arian says, " I am of the mind that there is no 
Crosby's His Enq ^ rue baptism upon earth, the Anabaptist 
Bapt, vol. I, pp. replies, I pray thee, son, say not so; the 
89 > 90- congregation I am of can, and doth, ad- 

minister true baptism. When an inquirer after truth 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 427 

offers, upon his proving what he has said, to leave his 
old religion, the Anabaptist answers: you may say, if 
God will give the grace to leave it; for it is a peculiar 
grace to leave Sodom and Egypt, spiritually so-called. 
When the same person offers to join with them* and firmly 
betake himself to their faith; the Anabaptist replies: the 
dew of heaven come upon you; to-morrow I will bring you 
into our sacred congregation, that so you may come to be 
informed in the faith, but after that, to be purely baptized" 
It will be remembered, that this account of the English 
Baptists, was by their opponent, Enoch Clapham, and maj 
be considered valuable as to the matters of fact stated. 
Several important points are brought to view in these 
quotations, as follows : 

First: The English Baptists held, that repentance and 
faith must precede baptism. 

Second: Tliat the baptism of the Church of England 
and of the Puritans teas invalid : 

Third : That the true baptism was among themselves : 

Fourth: That the term Anabaptist loas a name of re- 
proach, unjustly cast upon them : 

Fifth: And that they regarded the churches of Rome 
and England, with all their branches, as Sodom and Egypt, 
spiritually so called. 

In the year 1611, King James, the author of the com- 
mon version of the Bible, showed his zeal for the Episco- 
pal Church by burning alive two men for heresy. They 
were burnt in Smithfield, in the year 1611. One of these 
was Legate, who was accused of denying the doctrine of 
the Trinity ; and " The other was one Ed- 
ward Wightman, a Baptist of the town <^W *&*•£«? 
7 r Bap., vol. i,p. 108 

of Burton upon Trent, who, on the 14th 



428 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

day of December, was convicted of divers heresies, before 
the bishop of Coventry and Litchfield ; and being deliv- 
ered up to the secular power, was burnt at Litchfield the- 
11th of April following." 

We find among the errors for which Wightman was 
burned, he held : " That the baptizing of infants is an 
abominable custom : That the Lord's Supper and baptism 
are not to be celebrated as they are now practiced in the 
Church of England : That Christianity is not wholly pro- 
fessed and preached in the Church of England, but only 
in part." And besides burning Baptists, King James 
seized their estates and wasted " away their lives privately 
in nasty prisons." It is no wonder that he constructed 
rules to prevent a perfect translation of the Bible. 

The hatred against the English Baptists was so intense, 

even under the Presbyterian rule, that Samuel Oates, a 

Baptist preacher, was arrested in 1646, 
See Crosby, vol. L u i . •. . -, „ r 

2 o 6 "and put m irons as a murderer/ 7 because 

a lady died a few weeks after her baptism. 
But upon trial it was found that Anne Martin, the lady 
who died, was in better health for some time after her bap- 
tism than for years before. These sons of Calvin made a 
desperate effort to secure the execution of Oates, the Bap- 
tist preacher, as a murderer for the practice of immersion. 
The secret of the matter was, that Oates was an able 
preacher "and great disputant" against the false claims 
of Presbyterianism. During the reign of Charles II. a 
Baptist preacher, by the name of John James, was pulled 
down from the pulpit while preaching, by an officer of the 
government, and was afterward arrested and tried, under 
the pretense that he had spoken treason. And after he 
was condemned to death, his wife bore a petition to the 



(Baptists (Persecuted. 429 

king, who only mocked at the distress of the poor woman, 
and said, " Oh ! Mr. James : he is a sweet gentleman ; yea, 
he shall be hanged." Consequently, James was hanged 
and quartered. 

Even Richard Baxter, the author of the Saint's Rest, 
charges the Baptists with murder, and nearly every other 
sin, for the practice of immersion. We here introduce the 
remarkable language of Mr. Baxter himself, as reported 
by Crosby in his history. Crosby quotes from Baxter's 
Plain Scripture Proof, p. 134: 

" Mr. Baxter charges the practice of dipping in baptism 
as a breach of the sixth commandment; and forms his ar- 
gument upon it thus : ' That which is a plain breach of the 
sixth commandment, Thou shalt not kill, Crosby's His. Enq. 
is no ordinance of God, but a most heinous Bapt., vol. Ill, 
sin : but the ordinary practice of baptiz- preface, P- 33. 
ing by dipping overhead in cold water, as necessary, is a 
plain breach of the sixth commandment. Therefore, it is 
no ordinance of God, but a heinous sin. And, as Mr. 
Craddock, in his book of Gospel Liberty, shows, the mag- 
istrate ought to restrain it, to save the lives of his subjects; 
even according to their principles, that will yet allow the 
magistrate no power directly in matters of worship. That 
this is flat murder, and no better, being ordinarily and 
generally used, is undeniable to any understanding man. 
For that w r hich directly tendeth to overthrow men's lives, 
being willfully used, is plain murder. And further, he 
adds, I know not what trick a covetous landlord can find 
out, to get his tenants to die apace, that he may have new 
fines and herriots, likelier to encourage such practices, that 
he may get them to turn Anabaptists. I wish, says he, 
that this device be not it, that countenances these men. 



430 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

And covetous physicians, methinks, should not be much 
against them. Catarrhs and obstructions, which are the 
two great fountains of most mortal diseases in man's body, 
could scarce have a more notable means to produce them 
where they are not, or to increase them where they are. 
Apoplexies, lethargies, palsies, and all comatous diseases, 
would be promoted by it. So would cephalalgies, hemi- 
cranies, phthises, debility of the stomach, crudities, and 
almost all fevers, dysenteries, diarrheas, cholics, iliac pas- 
sions, convulsions, spasms, tremors, etc. All hepatic, sple- 
netic, pulmonic persons, and hypochondriacs, would soon 
have enough of it. ; M 

Thus we have Richard Baxter's statement of the evils 
of immersion. According to him, it is almost as bad as 
Pandora's box, in producing human woes. Mr. Baxter 
concluded by saying that immersion " is good for nothing 
but to dispatch men out of the world that are burdensome, 
and to ranken church-yards." He even constructed an 
argument to try to prove that immersion is a " breach of 
the seventh commandment — Thou shalt not commit adul- 
tery " But enough : this is but one example of the intense 
opposition to Baptists by those Protestants who had not 
the power to lay violent hands on them. It was my de- 
sign to introduce many other illustrious examples of the 
sufferings of the English Baptists for the cause of truth ; 
but space forbids. Like the ancient Waldenses, the Bap- 
tists of this period have suffered in almost every conceiv- 
able way, for their attachment for the cause of Christ. 
Women have gone to the stake from the advanced age of 
eighty-four years down to the tender age of fourteen, where 
they were burned to ashes simply because they maintained 
the doctrine of the Baptists. Baptist ministers have spent 



Mennonites. 431 



from one to twenty years of their ministerial lives in filthy 
prisons, because of their attachment to Baptist doctrine. 
Truly, they belonged to that " sect " every-where spoken 
against. We have not pursued the regular order in the 
application of the peculiarities to this period. The great 
mass of the German and English Baptists maintained the 
Bible characteristics, even at the sacrifice of their lives. 
The exception to this was, the Open-communion Baptists 
of Poland, under the leadership of Socinus, and the Eng- 
lish Open-communion Baptists, led by Bobert Hall. But 
it is generally admitted, by men of candor, that open com- 
munion is wholly inconsistent with Baptist principles. 



Section II. — Distinction between the ancient 

•AND MODERN MENNONITES. 

Menno Simon, a native Frieseland, a Romish priest, re- 
nounced the Catholic Church and joined the Baptists in 
1536. His wonderful success as a Baptist minister brought 
down the hatred and persecution of all Pedobaptists upon 
him. And from him the opponents of the Baptists began 
to call them Mennonites. Mosheim, the historian, in his 
account of the Baptists, heads the chapter, "The His- 
tory of the Anabaptists or Mennonites." The 
question has lately been raised as to the Baptist character 
of the Mennonites. The confusion on this point has 
arisen from a failure to discriminate between the original 
strict Mennonites, and the modern Mennonites. Menno 
himself was a strict Baptist. It is known that all Menno- 
nites profess to practice believer's baptism, but the recent 
Mennonites are known to practice pouring for baptism. 



432 Modern (Baptist Period. 

J. N. Brown, the author of the Religious Encyclopedia, 

states, upon the authority of Mr. Ward, that, " The modern 

^ , -„ ^» Mennonites plead the authority of Menno 

Rd.JEfocyc. 9 v.7W. „ xl * . , J . " v 

lor the use of pouring and sprinkling as 

baptism. But in reality it is a wide departure from the 
views of Menno, who says, ' After we have searched ever so 
diligently, we shall find no other baptism but dipping in 
water, which is acceptable to God and approved in his 
"Word/ " And Mr. Benedict remarks that : " Menno was, 
indeed, a distinguished teacher among the 
Benedict's Ms. Anabaptists during the whole of his min- 
istry, but Mosheim's account of his gather- 
ing up the fragments of the society after their dispersion, 
and re-organizing them upon new and better principles, 
is not at all sustained by anything that appears in their 
own relations. They were the same people in policy and 
practice before Menno came among them, as afterward." 
These quotations go to prove, that Menno held the Baptist 
doctrine of immersion, and that he joined the Baptists, who 
were denominationally the same people before and after 
his reception among them. 

Mosheim, the historian, settles the fact, that the original 
Mennonites were thorough immersionists. Speaking of 
the particular Baptists of England, he says : " The Bap- 
tists of the latter sect settled chiefly in 

Mosheim' s Church T j j • il j • xx j 

jr. 500 London, and m the adjacent towns and 

villages ; and they have departed so far 

from the tenets of their ancestors, that, at this day, they 

retain no more of the peculiar doctrines and institutions 

of the Mennonites, than the administration of baptism by 

immersion, and the refusal of that sacrament to infants, 

and those of tender years ; and consequently they have 






Mennonites. 433 



none of those scruples relating to oaths, wars, and the 
functions of magistracy, which still remain among even 
the most rational part of the Mennonites." 

Here we have the testimony that the " administration 
of baptism by immersion, and the refusal of that sacra- 
merit to infants " are " peculiar doctrines " of the Mennon- 
ites. And though this historian would make the impres- 
sion that the English Baptists differed from the Mennon- 
ites, yet that difference had no reference to church organ- 
ization or ordinances, but only related to their views con- 
cerning oaths, bearing arms, etc. Mosheim further states 
the doctrine of the Mennonites, as follows : " The opinions 
entertained by the Mennonites in general, 

seemed to be derived from this leading; ° s eim * urc 

• •ii ii- -"^> P- 497. 

and fundamental principle, that i the king- 
dom of Christ established upon earth, is a visible church 
or community, to which the holy and the just are alone to 
be admitted, and which is consequently exempt from all 
those institutions and rules of discipline that have been 
invented by human wisdom for the correction and refor- 
mation of the wicked/ This fanatical principle was frankly 
avowed by the ancient Mennonites : their more immediate 
descendants, however, began to be less ingenious ; and, in 
their public confessions of faith, they either disguised it 
under ambiguous phrases, or expressed themselves as if 
they meant to renounce it. To renounce it entirely was, 
indeed, impossible, without falling into the greatest incon- 
sistency, and undermining the very foundation of those 
doctrines which distinguished them from all other Chris- 
tian societies. And yet it is certain that the present Men- 
nonites, as they have, in many other respects, departed 
from the principles and maxims of their ancestors, have 



434 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

also given a striking instance of defection in the case now 
before us, and have almost wholly relinquished this funda- 
mental doctrine of their sect, relating to the nature of the 
Christian Church." 

In this extract we have exhibited the purity of the an- 
cient Mennonite doctrine concerning the church, and also 
the fact that the modern Mennonites have departed from 
these original principles. A controversy originated among 
the Mennonites concerning church discipline. This began 
about the middle of the sixteenth century. One party 
favored the rigid execution of church discipline, while the 
other was more moderate. Speaking of these parties, Mos- 
heim remarks : " These two sects are, to 
^heim^Church thig yery day ^ distinguished by the de- 

'' ' ' nomination of fine and gross, or, to ex- 

press the distinctions in more intelligible terms, into rigid 
and moderate Anabaptists. The former observe, with the 
most religious accuracy, veneration, and precision, the an- 
cient doctrine, discipline, and precepts, of the purer sort 
of Anabaptists; the latter depart much more from the 
primitive sentiments, manners, and institutions of their 
sect, and more nearly approach those of the Protestant 
churches. The gross or modern Anabaptists consisted, at 
first, of the inhabitants of a district in North Holland, 
called Water Land ; and hence their whole sect received 
the denomination of Water Landrians." 

This needs no comment. It was the gross Mennonites — 
for the historian uses the words Anabaptists and Mennon- 
ites interchangeably — that departed from their original 
principles of purity in doctrine and practice. The present 
Mennonites, who pour for baptism, are the descendants of 
the Water Landrians, and not of the original Mennonites. 



Methodism. 435 



And when it is now stated that the Mennonites practice 
pouring for baptism, or that they are not Baptists, we 
must understand the allusion to be made to the descend- 
ants of the gross Mennonites. 

The departure of modern Mennonites from the princi- 
ples held by their ancestors, is confirmed by other histo- 
rians. Isaac Backus, speaking of the Mennonites of this 

country, remarks that : " The Mennon- 

. , -, ' » n j n Backus' Ch. His.. 

ites also came irom (jrermany, and are oi ^97 

like behavior, but they are not truly Bap- 
tists now. Their fathers were so in Luther's day, until 
confinement in prison brought them to pour water on the 
heads of the subjects, instead of immersion ; and what was 
then done out of necessity is now done of choice, as other 
corruptions are." 

Mr. Benedict acknowledges that part of the Mennonites 
have departed from their original custom of immersion. It 
is evident that some of our writers have conceded too much 
when they intimate that the original Mennonites were not 
immersionists. The original Mennonites, who were called 
Anabaptists, passed in shoals into England, where they are 
known under the name of Baptists. And those who now 
retain the name Mennonites, have entirely departed from 
the original doctrine of Menno and the " Anabaptists." 

It may be proper to mention the rise of some of the 
more modern societies which have recently come into ex- 
istence. We have already given an outline of the rise of 
the Lutherans, Episcopalians, and Presbyterians. From 
these Protestant churches numerous branches put forth. 
All the branches of Protestantism have their denomina- 
tional succession from the Church of Pome. The Method- 
ist society came out of the Church of England. The rise 



436 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

of this society was peculiar. It was for some time only a 
society in the Episcopal Church. The work of the Wes- 
leys began as early as 1729; but it was in 1737 that they 
claimed that " God then thrust them out to raise up a holy 
people." But it was not till the year 1784 that the Meth- 
odist Episcopal Church was formed as an independent 
body. And it was as late as the year 1845 that the M. E. 
Church South was established as a separate organization. 
This society is wholly destitute of those peculiar features 
which characterize the Church of Jesus Christ. It has 
John Wesley as its founder and head. Nathan Bangs, in 
his History of Methodism, says of Mr. Wesley : "He was 

the father of Methodism in this country, 
His. of Methodism. -i i -i . -, 

, j fi ' and, as such, deserves a conspicuous place 

in that temple which his own hands con- 
tributed so effectually to erect, that his sons in the Gospel 
and successors in the ministry may look to him as an ex- 
ample for their imitation, and be stimulated and strength- 
ened in their work." And instead of the Scriptures, th& 
Methodist society is governed by the Book of Discipline, 
which is not even founded on the Bible; for the bishops 
of the South say : " We esteem it our duty and privilege 
. . most earnestly to recommend to you, as 

members of our church, our Form of Dis- 
cipline, which has been founded on the experience of a 
long series of years; as also on the observations and re- 
marks we have made on ancient and modern churches." 
Neither do the Methodists observe the Bible order of 
the commandments; for they place what they term baptism 
before repentance or faith. Neither do they observe the 
religious equality taught in the Scriptures; for their form 
of church government is a hierarchy which gives some 



Methodism. 437 



ecclesiastical authority over others. And, furthermore, the 
Methodists have retained in their theory the popish doc- 
trine of baptismal salvation. They have slightly modified 
the baptismal service contained in the Book of Common 
Prayer. The minister is required to pray as follows: 
"Almighty and everlasting God, who of thy great mercy 

didst save Xoah and his family in the ark _. . 7 . 

. i i ti Discipline, p. 142. 

trom perishing by water; and also didst 

safely lead the children of Israel thy people through the 

Red Sea, figuring thereby thy holy baptism : we beseech 

thee of thine infinite mercies, that thou wilt look upon 

this child: wash him and sanctify him with the Holy Ghost, 

that he, being delivered from thy wrath, may be received 

into the ark of Christ's church," etc. By the examination 

of this entire service, it will be found that the Methodists 

teach that infants are received into " Christ's holy church " 

by baptism; and they also pray that "he, being delivered 

from thy wrath, may be received into the ark of Christ's 

church." This shows that they expect the deliverance 

from wrath in the act of baptism in order to membership 

in the church. The majority of the membership do not 

now hold this view ; but it was taught by Mr. "Wesley, and 

is still retained in the Discipline. 

We have the following remarkable statements in the 
Doctrinal Tracts, published by the General Conference, 
setting forth the benefits of baptism in the language of Mr. 
Wesley himself. Mr. Wesley affirms that : " By baptism 
we are admitted into the church, and con- 
sequently made members of Christ, its Doc ^ ml Tracts > 
Head." "By baptism, we who were 'by 
nature children of wrath/ are made the children of God." 

Again, Mr. Wesley says : " In the ordinary way, there 



438 Modern (Baptist Period. 

is no other means of entering into the church, or into 

m ^ A heaven. In all ages, the outward baptism 

Tracts p. 250. . . 

is a means of the inward ; as outward cir- 
cumcision was of the circumcision of the heart." In re- 
gard to infant baptism, Mr. Wesley remarks : " As to the 

_ m grounds of it : if infants are guilty of orig- 

I)oc. Tracts, V . 251. ?*.....* w * * 

mal sm, then they are proper subjects oi 

baptism; seeing, in the ordinary way, they can not be 

saved, unless this be washed away by baptism. It has 

been already proved, that this original stain cleaves to 

every child of man ; and that hereby they are children of 

wrath, and liable to eternal damnation. It is true the 

second Adam has found a remedy for the disease, which 

came upon all by the offense of the first. But the benefit 

of this is to be received through the means which he hath 

appointed; through baptism in particular, which is the 

ordinary means which he hath appointed for that purpose ; 

and to which God hath tied us, though he may not have 

tied himself. Indeed, where it can not be had, the case is 

different; but extraordinary cases do not make void a 

standing rule. This, therefore, is our first ground : Infants 

need to be washed from original sin ; therefore, they are 

proper subjects of baptism." Once more Mr. Wesley says : 

" Lastly, if there are such inestimable benefits conferred in 

Doc. Tracts,?. 2W. ba P tism > the cashing *™7 the g uilt of 
original sin, the engrafting us into Christ 

by making us members of his church, and thereby giving 

us a right to all the blessings of the Gospel; it follows, 

that infants may, yea, ought to be, baptized, and that none 

ought to hinder them." 

These quotations from Mr. Wesley; the founder of the 

Methodist society, exhibit the fact, that he embraced the 



Campbellism. 439 



Romish abomination of baptismal salvation, and even ap- 
plied it to infants. This doctrine is incorporated in Meth- 
odism ; and this error of itself would be sufficient to invali- 
date the claims of the Methodist society to be a true church 
of Christ. Yet it is evident that there are many of the peo- 
ple of God among the Methodists, who have mistaken their 
duty concerning the Church of Christ. But beside all the 
other disqualifications, the Methodist society is about 1700 
years too young, to be the church set up by Jesus Christ. 

The Campbellite Church. This society was established 
under the leadership of Alexander Campbell in the year 
1827. It has Mr. Campbell for its founder and head. In 
the biographical sketch of the life of Mr. Campbell by 
Mr. Segar, published with Mr. Campbell's Familiar Lec- 
tures on the Pentateuch, we have the following historic 
statement : 

"Alexander Campbell soon became chiefly and promi- 
nently known as the recognized head of a 
new religious movement, the purpose of Li f eo f Campbell, 
which was to restore Primitive Christianity 
in all its simplicity and beauty. Out of this movement 
has grown a people who choose to call themselves Chris- 
tians or Disciples, now numbering not less than five 
hundred thousand members in the United States." 

Thus we have the acklowledgment of the leading Camp- 
bellites, that Alexander Campbell is the " recognized 
head n of this new religious movement, out of which has 
grown the " Christian Church." For further proof that 
Mr. Campbell was the founder of this society, the reader 
is referred to chapter fourth of my Text-Book on Campbell- 
ism. It is evident that this society, which has Mr. Campbell 
for its founder and head, is not the true Church of Christ ; for 



440 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

the true church has Jesus Christ for its founder and head. 
The Reformation of the nineteenth century had its founda- 
tion in skepticism concerning the perpetuity of the king- 
dom of Christ. It became necessary for Mr. Campbell to 
make the impression, that the church had apostatized in 
order that he might have a good excuse to introduce his 
religious movement to restore Primitive Christianity. In 
regard to the extent of the apostacy, Mr. Campbell says 
that, " A few green spots here and there in the wastes of 

Zion, a few individuals exhibiting the 
Mill. Harbinger, /» ., /. ,i • x j? 'xi j xi j 

rr 7 T7- o^o truits ot the ancient iaith, need not be ad- 
Vol. V, p. 372. # ; 

cluced in proof that the whole body is not 
full of wounds and bruises and putrifying sores. The lep- 
rosy of the apostacy has spread over all Christendom, 
Catholic and Protestant." . If this statement of the Re- 
former is correct, then the Savior was mistaken, for the 
gates of hell have prevailed against his church. Let God 
be true, if it makes every man a liar. The members of 
this society are much divided as to the most appropriate 
name to call themselves as a church. In some sections 
they call themselves " Disciples," but in others they call 
themselves the " Christian Church," and of late, some of 
them are contending for the name " Church of God." We 
are informed that a committee has recently been appointed 
in the State of Kentucky, to try, if possible, to settle the 
controversy about their name. It would seem that they 
, depend much on the name to establish their claims to be 
the Church of Christ ! These modern Disciples profess to 
take the Bible as their rule of conduct, but when brought 
to the test, they set aside almost half of the New Testa- 
ment, as not being applicable to the present dispensation. 
They think it wrong to use the model prayer, called " the 



Campbellism. 441 



Lord's Prayer," which was given by Jesus Christ to his 
disciples. And the numerous instances of the pardon of 
sins through faith, they set aside as not being examples of 
the present plan of salvation. They really seem to set 
aside and nullify all of the New Testament which comes in 
conflict with Mr. CampbelPs interpretation of the Scrip- 
tures. They do not even take the whole of the New Testa- 
ment as their rule of conduct. They have also inverted 
the order of the commandments of Christ, by inverting the 
order of repentance and faith, and holding open communion. 
And instead of burying in baptism those who are dead to 
or freed from sin, they baptize the sinner in order to his 
pardon. They baptize a child of the Devil, in order to 
make him a child of God. On this point, Mr. Campbell 
says : " When a person has no sins to confess, I do not 
baptize him. Baptism can neither be the ^Bll, Harb. New 
seeking, nor answer of a good conscience Series., Vol. IV, 
to the man that has no sins from which to P- 2 ^- 
be cleansed." The Campbellites advocate as their leading 
doctrine, the popish dogma of baptismal salvation. Mr. 
Campbell states his doctrine thus: "As regeneration is 
taught to be equivalent to ' being born 
again/ and understood to be of the same Chr ^ n System > 

. . i t . t , n P. 200. 

import with a new birth, w T e shall exam- 
ine it under this metaphor ; for if immersion be equivalent 
to regeneration, and regeneration be of the same import 
with being born again, then being born again and being 
immersed are the same thing, for this plain reason: that 
things which are equal to the same thing, are equal to one 
another." Again, Mr. Campbell says: "Hence, neither 
praying, singing, reading, repenting, sor- Mill. Har., Extra, 
rowing, resolving, nor waiting to be better, No. I, p. 35. 



442 Modern (Baptist (Period. 

was the converting act; immersion alone was that act of 
turning to God." 

A volume might be filled with quotations to the same 
effect, from the leading Reformers. For the full discus- 
sion of the claims of this new sect, which is now about 43 
years old, the reader is referred to the Text-Book on Camp- 
bellism. This society is about 1800 years too young to be 
the church set up by Jesus Christ ; and it is also wholly 
destitute of the peculiar characteristics of the kingdom of 
heaven. There are many other societies of recent origin, 
claiming to be branches of the Church of Christ, which we 
have not space to examine. And several new societies 
are now in process of organization, which will soon be 
contending for the privileges and authority of veritable 
churches of Jesus Christ. The world must yet learn that 
all the societies established in uninspired wisdom since the 
time of Christ on earth, have no just claims whatever to be 
regarded as either the kingdom of Christ or any part of it. 



(Rise of Churches. 443 



CHAPTER XIX. 



CONCLUSION. 

In the foregoing work we found, that the objections 
urged against the antiquity of the Baptists as a denomina- 
tion are wholly without foundation. No point in history 
has yet been found, this side of the days of Jesus Christ 
on earth, where the Baptist denomination had its origin. 
Notwithstanding all the efforts of bitter foes, no break has 
yet been discovered in the chain of Baptist succession. 
There has been no point of time since the apostolic age, 
when it can be said, in truth, there were no witnesses for 
Christ on earth holding the faith and practice of Baptists. 
Every other professed Christian denomination, either 
admits a human origin in modern times, or claims its suc- 
cession through the Romish apostacy. But as the Romish 
succession is the succession of Antichrist, therefore those 
churches whose history is identified with the Church of 
Rome, can lay no claim whatever to the true succession. 
The Baptists are the only people on earth who claim a 
succession from the apostolic age, independent of the 
Church of Rome; and as Jesus Christ has a church against 
which the gates of hell have never prevailed, which has 
existed independent of the Romish hierarchy, therefore the 
Baptists are really the only claimants to this succession. 
All others, by their own acknowledgments, have no just 
claims to be the church established by Jesus Christ himself, 



444 Conclusion, 



which has been perpetuated to the present time. We take 
it for granted, that every denomination is competent to 
give the leading facts of its own history. Even the most 
depraved denominations except the Catholics have suffi- 
cient candor and honesty to give a correct account of their 
own origin. The Romish Church herself, confesses that 
many of her rites and ceremonies have been introduced 
since the apostolic age. She acknowledges that she has 
changed the ordinances of Jesus Christ on the supposed 
authority of the keys. Even Rome herself with her pres- 
ent rites and ceremonies does not claim an apostolic origin. 
The Lutheran Church claims its origin from Martin Luther, 
about the year 1525. It has no succession beyond the 
sixteenth century, unless it was the Romish succession. 
And though the Church of England claims apostolic suc- 
cession through Rome herself, yet she is compelled to look 
to King Henry VIXL, about the year 1530, for her origin 
separate from the Romish jurisdiction. The Presbyterian 
Church boldly claims the " godly-learned " man, John Cal- 
vin, as its founder. Its succession extends no further back in 
history than the year 1541. The various branches of Pres- 
byterianism are of still more recent date. The Methodist 
Church glories in John Wesley as her founder and head. 
She can not go beyond the year 1729, for the germ of that 
system of ecclesiasticism known as Methodism. And it 
was not until the year 1784 that Methodism was rent off 
from the Episcopal Church. The Cumberland Presbyte- 
rian Church claims its origin from the fourth day of Feb- 
ruary, 1810. It has Messrs. Ewing, King, and McAdow, 
as its founders. The Campbellite society, which makes 
higher pretensions than all the modern sects combined, 
boast of Alexander Campbell, of Bethany, Virginia, as the 



Cfcise of Churches. 445 



head of their religious movement. They claim the year 
1827 as the date of their origin as an organized ecclesi- 
astical body. After all their claims to be the Christian 
Church, and their noise about Pentecost, they are forced to 
admit the humiliating fact, that as an organization, they 
are not yet fifty years old; and that they fall short of the 
day of Pentecost nearly 1800 years. But the Baptists 
boldly claim Jesus Christ as their founder and head, and 
a continued succession through succeeding ages from the 
apostles to the present time. And if the Baptists do not 
give a correct statement of their own origin, they are the 
only denomination outside of the Church of Rome too dis- 
honest to give the truth of their own history. But if 
Baptists are too dishonest to tell the truth as to their 
origin, then other denominations ought not to desire relig- 
ious correspondence with them; but if their claims are true, 
then they are the only people who possess the true church 
succession All who have not embraced skeptical views in 
regard to the perpetuity of the kingdom of Christ, admit 
that that kingdom has been preserved to the present time ; 
therefore, there is now on earth one church, or kingdom, 
which has continued all the time in existence, from the 
apostolic age down to the present ; but as all other churches, 
except the Baptist Church, are known to have originated 
in uninspired wisdom, long since the apostolic age, there- 
fore the Baptist Church has continued from the apostolic 
age to the present time. 

As stated at the beginning of this work, no Baptist has 
ever attempted to locate the origin of the Baptist denomi- 
nation since the days of Christ and the apostles. In chap- 
ter first, we have the testimony of Benedict the historian, 
Dr. Howell, and J. L. Waller, in favor of Baptist succes- 



446 Conclusion. 



sion; all claiming the perpetuity of the church from the 
time of Jesus Christ. Mr. Orchard, the historian, says : 
"I have demonstrated, so far as human testimony is al- 
lowed to prove any fact, that The Bap- 
OrcharaVs Bapt tist Church as th - Church f Christ 
His.jVol.IIjip.il. # ; ' 

has existed from the day of Pentecost to 

.the privileged period." 

Mr. Benedict says, that " The Welsh Baptists have the 

fullest confidence that their sentiments 
Ben. His. Bapt.j i -, i. j . .-, . , . 

OAA r nave always lived m their mountainous 

P- 344. o i 

retreats, from the apostolic age to the pres- 
ent time, although the people were not always congregated 
in churches. Their country, in their estimation, was 
another Piedmont, where the witnesses for the truth found 
shelter and concealment in times of universal darkness and 
superstition." 

I had designed to furnish a sketch of the Welsh Baptist 
history, showing their claims to an existence in their mount- 
ain retreats up to the apostolic times, but my space for- 
bids. This universal claim of the Welsh Baptists to 
church succession, should have great weight as evidence 
on this question. No living historian, whether friend or 
foe, can find the origin of the Welsh Baptists this side of 
the days of the apostles. Again, we have the testimony 
of the American Baptist Publication Society, indorsing the 
language of Mr. Pengilly, as follows : " Our principles are 

as old as Christianity. We acknowledge 
apis anua , nQ f oun( j er ]^ u ^ Ch r i s t. With enthusiasts 

in Germany, or in any age or country, wc 
have no connection, and our forefathers never had. Enthu- 
siast may be designated by the same name, but that proves 
nothing. Persons holding our distinctive principles — i. e., 



(Rise of Churches. 447 

the baptism of believers only — have appeared in all ages of 
the Christian era. From Christ to nearly the end of the 
second century, there were no others ; at least, if there 
were any, their history is a blank." 

On Baptist succession, Dr. Peck remarks that, " Bap- 
tists in every age, from the apostles, re- 
mained true to the kingdom which Christ e W° m 
came to establish." 

Speaking of the conversion of Men no, Mr. Belcher says : 

"This great change took place in 1535; it endued Menno 

with a martyr spirit. Now, with a peni- 

, -i ,i -i . t ',-, ^i • , i Religious Denom., 

tent heart, he was buried with Christ by * ' 

7 p. boo. 

baptism, and joined the martyr church of 
the New Testament — that church more ancient than 
Rome — persecuted in every age, because so pure. It is 
now too late in the day to confound this primitive people 
with the i Munster Sect,' because both were called by their 
enemies, i Anabaptists/ This is proof of pitiable ignorance. 
Learned Romanists knew better. i If the truth of relig- 
ion/ said Cardinal Hosius, President of the Council of 
Trent in 1555, 'were to be judged of by the readiness and 
cheerfulness which a man of any sect shows in suffering, 
then the opinions and persuasions of no sect can be truer 
or surer than those of the Anabaptists (Baptists); since 
there have been none for these 1200 years past that have 
been more grievously punished/ Yet Pope Pius II. con- 
fessed, in 1460, 'Neither the decress of popes, nor armies 
of Christians could extirpate them/ 'All sorts of people/ 
said Seisselius, Archbishop of Turin in 1470, 'have re- 
peatedly endeavored, but in vain, to root them out ; for 
even yet, contrary to the opinion of all men, they still 
remain conquerors, or at least wholly invincible/ Such 



448 Conclusion. 



are the concessions of illustrious Romanists to. the long, 
unbroken line of our meek martyr witnesses." Thus we 
have the admissions of Catholics themselves, that they 
have never been able to succeed in breaking the line of 
Baptist succession. Time would fail to introduce the tes- 
timony of all the Baptist writers who claim the church 
succession from the apostolic age. We conclude the list 
with the testimony of J. Newton Brown, the learned author 
of the Religious Encyclopedia, as follows: "The Baptists 

have no difficulty whatever, in tracing up 
wpw. - a/} V rs > their principles and their churches to the 

apostolic age. It has been often said by 
our enemies, that we originated in the German city of Mini- 
ster, in 1534. Lamentable must be the weakness and ig- 
norance of such an assertion, come from whom it may. It 
were easy to cite eminent Pedobaptist historians to refute 
this calumny — especially Linborch and Mosheim, of the 
last century." Again, Mr. Brown remarks, that, " The 

Baptists — though for the most part of the 
apis aryis, QQY Q £ ^q world, rich in faith only, and 
p. 20. L 7 .... 

unknown to fame, as were the primitive 

Christians — have yet, in almost all ages, had of their num- 
ber, men of the most eminent learning and ability, who 
died as martyrs to the faith. From the time of Novatian, 
indeed, it has been customary with their adversaries to call 
the whole body by the name of its most distinguished 
leader, as if they were a new sect, of which he was the 
originator. Thus the Cathari were called Novatians — 
then Paulicians — then Petrobrusians, Henricians, Joseph- 
ists — then Arnoldists, Waldenses, Lollards, Mennon- 
ites ; nor were they ever permitted to bear their present 
name of Baptists until after their legal toleration in Eng- 



(Prophets on Succession. 449 

land, in 1688. Yet to them, as we have seen, belong 
all the inspired writers of the New Testament — the sources 
of our Christian literature — Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, 
James, Jude, Peter, and Paul himself, the accomplished 
pupil of Gamaliel." In fact, the whole Baptist family look 
to Jesus Christ as their founder and head, and claim the 
succession or perpetuity of the church from the apos- 
tolic age to the present time. The host of Baptist martyrs 
in past ages, who sealed their testimony with their blood, 
claim the succession, or perpetuity of the kingdom of 
Jesus Christ. The ancient prophets themselves, while 
moved with prophetic inspiration^ pointed out in glow- 
ing strains the setting up and perpetuity of the kingdom 
of God. They said, " In the days of these kings shall the 

God of heaven set up a kinqdom ivhich _ . 

Daniel 2: 44. 
shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom 

shall not be left to other people, but it shall- break in pieces 
and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever" 
And the same holy prophets were permitted to see the 
final triumphs of the church, and her glorious reign over 
the kingdoms of the earth; they say: " And it shall come 
to pass in the last days, that the mountain 
of the Lord's house shall be established in 
the tot> of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the 
hills ; and all nations shall flow unto it. And many peo- 
ple shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; 
and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths : for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word 
of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among 
the nations, and shall rebuke many people ; and they shall 
beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into 



450 Conclusion. 



pruning hooks : nation shall not lift up sword against na- 
tion, neither shall they learn war any more." And Jesus 
Christ who was dead and is alive forevermore, taught the 
succession, or perpetuity of the church when he said, " Upon 

, r , _ ^' this rock I will build my church : and the 
Matthew 16: 18. /. i n i n , n - 

gates oi hell shall not prevail against it." 

And He pointed out the same doctrine of church succes- 
sion, when he gave the solemn emblems of his broken 
body and shed blood, to be observed in his kingdom un- 
til his second coming; and the Savior promises to be with 
his church always, even until the end of the world. 

We, as Baptists, believe with the apostle Paul, that we 

_ have received " a kingdom that can not be 
Hebrews 12: 28. , „ \. . . s . 

moved from its glorious foundation ; and 

though we are now regarded as a "sect," and every-where 

spoken against, we believe that the time is not far distant, 

when "The kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of 

the kingdom under the whole heaven, 

shall be given to the people of the saints 

of the Most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting 

kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him." 

And though the Bride of Christ is yet despised and 

rejected of men, yet she will, at last, "Look forth as 

the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and 

terrible as an army with banners," and in her joyful 

marriage-day will be " Heard as it were the voice of a 

great multitude, and as the voice of many 

Rev. 19: 6-8. & ' . J 

waters, and as the voice of mighty tnun- 

derings, saying, Alleluia ; for the Lord God omnipotent 

reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to 

him : for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his 

wife hath made herself readv." 



Church Succession. 451 

APPENDIX. 

BY 

PROF. A. S. WORRELL, 

OP 

LEXINGTON, KT. 



The church question is destined, sooner or later, to shake 
existing ecclesiasticisms to their foundations. The truly 
converted man wishes to know what the true church is ; 
and when this important information is obtained, he will 
be disposed to seek membership therein. Could the his- 
tory of the Church of Christ be brought fairly before the 
Christian world, the truly pious and devoted among the 
numerous sects of Christendom, would, in many instances, 
leave their present moorings, and seek a place within her 
port. 

In tracing the history of existing denominations back- 
ward, we find several of them falling out before we travel 
a century in the past ; and when we reach the beginning 
of the sixteenth century, we find only two leading denom- 
inations — t he Baptist and the Catholic. These two oppos- 
ing organizations — the one persecuted, and the other per- 
secuting — run backward into the fourth, or possibly the 
third century anno domini. They are the only parties 
who have any just claims for church honors, if it be ad- 



452 Appendix. 

mitted that the Church of Christ has had a continuous 
existence since its organization. The " Reformed Church " 
(Campbellite) is about eighteen centuries too young; the 
Methodist Episcopal and Protestant Methodist, more than 
seventeen centuries ; all other modern Pedobaptist organi- 
zations, at least fifteen centuries, — to assume the honor of 
being the Church of Christ. If in nothing else, they are 
greatly wanting in time. All Pedobaptist churches must 
trace their history, directly or indirectly, to the Catholic 
Church. They have Catholic baptism, so-called. The 
" mode " of their baptism rests only upon Catholic author- 
ity. And the only possible succession which they can 
claim for their baptism (sprinkling or pouring), is through 
Catholicism. If the Catholic Church falls short of the 
proper age, by two or three centuries, of course all those 
sects, deriving their origin from her, must, even if they 
should make good their claims since the Reformation, fall 
short by the same period. We see no possible ground 
which modern Pedobaptists can urge, in support of their 
claims, to be the true churches of Christ ; for, if the Cath- 
olic was the true church at the time of the Reformation, 
none of these anathematized schisms could, with reason, 
lay claim to that honor ; and if the Catholic was not the 
true church, those coming out of her, could not be (since 
"water can not rise above its level"); in either event, 
Protestant claims to be the church, are null and void. The 
contest for church honors, therefore, lies between the Bap- 
tists and Catholics. And it has already been said that 
the Catholics can not trace their history further back than 
about the third century. Indeed, we have the New Tes- 
tament history of many of the churches founded by the 
apostles and early Christians ; and, in that history, noth- 



Church Succession. 453 

ing is more patent than that there was no Catholic Church 
then in existence. Nor does the sacred record know any- 
thing of Catholicism except as " the mystery of iniquity," 
" Babylon," u the mother of harlots," etc. Catholicism is 
the great counterfeit church — the organization of Satan — 
devised with special reference to the overthrow of the 
Church of Christ, and for the purpose of deluding and 
ruining souls ! Her own vile superstitions, her manifest 
idolatry, her corrupt faith, her fiendish spirit of persecu- 
tion, all proclaim her origin, as not irom heaven, but from 
the bottomless pit ! If, therefore, the Baptists have no 
other rival, in the historical contest, the case need not be 
argued further — the Baptists are the Church of Christ, if 
he has any such organization on earth. 

Here it is proper to remark, that the existence of the 
Church of Christ does not depend, in any sense, upon her 
being able to prove, from uninspired historical records, her 
continued existence in the past. Christ built his church be- 
fore he ascended to glory, and he promised that "the gates 
of hell should not prevail against it." Now, what did he 
build f Something already in existence ? This must have 
been the case, if he referred merely to his spiritual follow- 
ers. He had numbers of these before the declaration, that 
he would build the church, was made. Besides, the very 
term — build — proves that it w r as to be a structure of some 
sort — an organization composed of different individual 
elements. The elect, in the aggregate, could not have been 
meant by the Savior ; for these had already been chosen 
before the foundation of the world ; and he has never, to 
this day, organized them into a church. They will form 
a glorious church in the morning of the resurrection. 
When, therefore, the Savior said he would build his 



454 Appendix. 

church, he manifestly had reference to a congregation of 
true worshipers — such as the church at Jerusalem, the 
church at Ephesus, etc. — an organization whose duty it 
would be to proclaim the Word of Life to a lost world, 
observe and perpetuate the ordinances in their purity. 
Now, it smacks of infidelity to doubt that such an organ- 
ization or company of Christians has existed somewhere, 
ever since the first church was established. And to sup- 
pose, that before it is reasonable to believe that the church 
has existed in all ages since its first establishment, unless 
it can first be established by historical proof, is to discredit 
the statement of Christ, and open the flood-gates of infi- 
delity. It should be remembered that very few of the 
facts of past ages have ever been recorded. Many insti- 
tutions, large and flourishing, may have existed, and yet 
there may have been no historian to take notice of them. 
Can we say, that, because any particular event is not re- 
corded, it never happened ? Those who will not believe 
that the church has existed continuously since its organi- 
zation, virtually assume, as it seems to us, that everything 
important has been recorded in each successive age ! A 
monstrous assumption, indeed ! We urge, therefore, that 
we should believe that the church has had a continuous 
existence, even if history said not one word about it, since 
we should believe God rather than man ; yea, " Let God 
be true, and every man a liar." History can not make 
the words of the Almighty more credible ! 

It should be remembered also, that, situated as the 
church was for more than a thousand years, she was in a 
very poor condition to write her own history. ■ " Driven 
into the wilderness," and forced to conceal her existence, 
for a great portion of the time, from her deadly persecu- 



Church Succession. 455 

tors — poor, wretched, wandering about in dens and caves 
of earth — she felt little disposed to write anything. In- 
deed, it would have been wrong — suicidal — for her to have 
furnished the names and doings of those whose lives were 
eagerly sought by their blood-thirsty accusers and perse- 
cutors. To expect that they would have given anything 
like a full record of their works, is wholly unreasonable. 
The absence of a connected history of the church is what 
a reasonable being, under all circumstances, would natu- 
rally expect* 

The history of the church, therefore, has been written, 
in the main — so far as it has been written at all — by her 
enemies. The bloody statutes and decrees of kings and 
rulers, instigated by Satanic malice, constitute the princi- 
pal portion of the written history of the church during 
much of the period of persecution ; but for such records, 
we would know but little of her existence ( except as we 
believe the Divine promise in the absence of all other 
proof), for one thousand years previous to the Reforma- 
tion. It may not be amiss to state that a " church, scat- 
tered " by persecution, is not necessarily annihilated. The 
church at Jerusalem was persecuted and scattered, yet they 
did not forfeit, by being thus maltreated, the right of as- 
sembling together whenever and wherever they could ; and 
when they did so assemble for the purpose of divine wor- 
ship, they were just as truly the church as they were before 
they were scattered. Apply this principle generally, and 
we have little difficulty, in a historical point of view, in 
affirming the continuous existence of the church. 

It is generally agreed that there were faithful followers 
of Christ during all the period of persecution ; now, if 
there were such, whenever they came together, in the Spirit 



456 Appendix, 

of Christ, to observe the ordinances, or otherwise engage 
in the worship of God, there the church existed. Of course 
this view of the church excludes some notions which we 
are wont to regard as inseparable from her existence, such 
as a house for worship and a regular time for meeting. A 
close organization, having a regular time and place for 
meeting, is not necessary, under all circumstances, to the 
existence of a church. These are, indeed, great conven- 
iences ; but where adverse circumstances, over which the 
church has no control, disperse and make it necessary for 
the members to meet only occasionally and at irregular in- 
tervals — in caves and at night — who will say that such a 
company of faithful followers of the Lamb are not a church ? 
Would a century of such oppression crush out the life of 
a church, provided it assemble occasionally for divine wor- 
ship ? Manifestly not. In this way, we doubt not, the 
Church of Christ was perpetuated, for long intervals, and 
perhaps centuries, during the uninterrupted sway of the 
man of sin. 

All the facts of history — so far as they have been trans- 
mitted to us — go to show that the church, in accordance 
with the preceding view, has existed continuously from 
the days of its organization up to the present time. Sup- 
pose, however, that some one should assume the opposite 
view, and urge that the church became extinct under the 
persecutions of Antichrist, he will then be forced to adopt 
one of the following positions : 1. That the Savior's prom- 
ise, to perpetuate the church, failed ; or, 2. That the Cath- 
olic is the true church ; or, 3. That the promise of the 
Savior had no reference to the church as an organized 
body. To adopt the first view, is to become an open in- 
fidel ; to take the second, is to side with Antichrist ; and 



Church Succession. 457 

to choose the third, is to assume a heavier burden than to 
admit, without perfect historical proof, the perpetuity of 
the church as at first organized. 

1. The one who adopts this latter view, must prove, 
by undoubted testimony, that the Savior did not use the 
word " church " in his promise to perpetuate it, in any such 
sense as to include the idea of an assembly. If he assumes 
that it means simply " the elect," or the aggregate of faith- 
ful followers living at any particular period, he will, be- 
sides the difficulty above suggested, ( 2 ) be forced to at- 
tach a very fanciful meaning to the word "build" in the 
text in which the Savior says, " I will build my church/ 7 
" Build " what ? " Build " " the elect " ! " Build " " the 
aggregate of faithful followers living at any particular 
period "I We should dread the onus of such an interpre- 
tation ! How much more simple is it to believe that Christ 
did build his church — models of which were multiplied by 
the apostles and Christians who succeeded them in all 
ages — that he has preserved it in all the essential elements 
of its existence ever since ; and hence, that it exists at the 
present time ! This is our firm opinion — an opinion which, 
in our judgment, is beset with fewer difficulties than any 
other. Ecclesiastical history (we refer not to the history 
of Catholicism), is particularly valuable : because, 

1. A knowledge of it will tend to bring together, in one 
body, all the followers of Christ, many of whom now occupy 
places in organizations hostile to the true church. With 
their present amount of ecclesiastical knowledge, many con- 
verted persons regard the numerous so-called " evangel- 
ical churches" as co-ordinate branches of the Church of 
Christ, whereas, if they could know that there is a church 
on earth, and in their midst, whose history connects back 



458 Appendix. 



with the apostolic churches, and which was " built " by 
Christ himself, they would be disposed to seek places in it, 
and contribute their part toward furthering its interests. 

2. Another advantage would result from the preva- 
lence of a correct historical knowledge of the church : It 
would serve to expose the false claims of other rival or- 
ganizations, and thus cripple their influence, and break 
the spell which they have imposed upon millions of earth's 
inhabitants, many of whom are the children of God. 

3. Finally, it would cause the members of the church 
to prize their privileges more highly, love her " sacred 
courts " more ardently, and labor more zealously to pro- 
mote her prosperity. 

In the present work the author does not profess to in- 
troduce things wholly unknown heretofore ; but he has 
sought and obtained materials from various reliable sources, 
compiled andarranged them in a convenient form for refer- 
ence. That his collations shed light upon the subject of 
"church succession," in a historical point of view, will, we 
think, be readily confessed. The work, which has cost the 
author no little labor, will serve the cause of truth, and 
fill an important place in our popular denominational lit- 
erature. The author deserves the thanks of the great Bap- 
tist family for his untiring energy and great zeal in the 
Master's cause. 






ABBREVIATIONS. 



Rel. Denom. in U. S. and G. B. — Religious Denominations in the United 
States and Great Britain. By Charles Desilver. This is a work of 
about 800 pages; and it is the most reliable work on the history of 
denominations which could be prepared, from the fact that the history 
of each denomination is furnished by a leading writer of its own com- 
munion. 

Old Bapt. Test. — Old Baptist Test. By Dr. John M. "Watson, a leading 
Anti-Mission Baptist of Tennessee. 

Letters to Br. Watson. By Dr. R. B. C. Howell. These Letters were first 
published in " The Baptist," and afterward sent out in tract form 
of 50 pages. 

Phil. Bapt. A880. — Philadelphia Baptist Association. This work contains 
the Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association, from 1707 to 
1807 — one hundred years — bound in a book of 475 pages. This is a 
work of great historical value. 

Crosby's His. Eng. Bapt. — Crosbys History of the English Baptists. In 
four volumes. By Thomas Crosby, a deacon in Dr. Gill's church. 
This work was published in 1738, and contains matter of great value. 

Mo8. Church His. — Mosheim's Church History. We have quoted Macclaine's 
translation. The learned author of this work was a member of the 
Lutheran Church, and deeply prejudiced against the Baptists. 

Jones' Ch. His. — Jones' Church History. By William Jones. Two vol- 
umes in one. From the fifth London edition. " Published by the 
Trustees of the Free-Will Baptist Connection. " This is a work of 
great value. 

Rob.'s Eccl. Res. — Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches. Published at Cam- 
bridge, in 1792. Though Robinson himself was a Baptist of Socician 
sentiments, yet this work is of great importance in an historic point 
of view. 



460 Abbreviations. 



Perrin y s His. Wald. — Perrin's History of the Waldenses. By Jean Paul 
Perrin. Published in 1847, by Griffith & Simon, in Philadelphia. 
This edition was published under the influence of the Presbyterians, 
with an Essay on the Present Waldenses, by Robert Baird, D. D., and 
a Recommendation, by Samuel Miller, D. D. 

His. Wald., A. S. S. U. — History of the Waldenses. By the American 
Sunday-School Union. 

Monastier's His. Vaud. — Monastier y s History of the Vaudois Church. 

Neand. His. Chr. Rel. and Ch. — Neander's History of the Christian Re- 
ligion and Church during the Three First Centuries. Translated from 
the German, by H. J. Rose. Fifth edition. Published in Philadel- 
phia, in 1844. 

Rel. Denom. — Religious Denominations. By Joseph Belcher. 

The foregoing list contains but a few of the works quoted 
in this book. 



GENERAL INDEX. 



PAGE. 

Apostolic Churches Missionary, - - - 33 

Ancient Waldenses supported denominational schools, - 40 
Atlantic Cable of Succession, - - - - -77 

Albigenses and Waldenses the same class of people, - 112 
Ancient Waldenses Baptists, . 121 
All the members of the churches to participate in the trans- 
action of business, - 220 
Antichrist, went out, ------ 330 

Archbishop Cranmer pleads for the death of Joan, - 421 

Ancient Mennonites Baptists, . - - - 432 

Brown, J. N., on Succession, - - - - 17 

Belcher, Joseph, on Succession, - - - 17 

Benedict, David, on Succession, - - - 18 

Baptist peculiarities, ------ 19 

Belcher, Joseph, on the origin of the name Baptist, - 20 

Baptist ministers from Europe. - - - - 62 

Baptists of England sent to Holland for baptism, - 87 

Baptist Succession from the apostles, - - - - 103 

Baptist peculiarity first tested by the Bible, - - 171 

Baptists claim Jesus Christ as the founder and head, - 178 

Bible the rule of conduct, - - - - 180 

Baptists claim the Scriptures as the sole rule of their faith 

and practice, ----- 184 

Bible order of the Commandments, - 190 

Bible order of the Commandments claimed by Baptists, - 195 

Burial in baptism of the dead to sin, - - - 199 

, Burial of the dead to sin, - - . 204 

Bishop Hedding for Close Communion, - 256 

Baptist ministers persecuted in Virginia, - 276 



462 General Index. 



PAGE. 

Bishop and Elder the same office, - 302 

Baptismal Salvation by Luther, - 401 

Baptismal Salvation in the Episcopal Church, - - 405 

Bitterness of writers against the Baptists, - - 420 

Baxter on the evils of Immersion, - 429 

Charleston Association, - 28 

Clarke, Dr. John, organized the Newport Church in 1638, - 64 

Charge of Drs. Miller and Kice against Jones, - - 114 

Cromwell on the rise of the Waldenses, - 141 

Creeds among Baptists, ----- 187 

Confession of Faith published by the English Baptists, - 188 

Communion objections, ----- 233 

Communion in heaven, ----- 238 

Concessions to Baptist views of Communion, - - 250 

Concessions of Dr. Hibbard, - . - - 252 

Coke and Asbury for Close Communion, - - 256 

Campbell for Close Communion, - 258 

Catholics and Protestants against the Baptists, - 272 

Cruel treatment of the Baptists by Presbyterians, - - 273 

Cyprian to Fidus on Infant baptism, - - - 309 

Church in the wilderness, ----- 344 

Close of the Waldensean period, ... 385 

Catholic Church, 394 

Calvin persecutes, ----- 419 

Campbellism, ------- 439 

Campbell the head, - - - - - 439 

Difference between Perrin and Jones concerning infant bap- 
tism among the Waldenses, - - - 116 
Decree of Victor Amadius to force the Baptists to baptize 

children, - - 132 

Discipline of Methodists for Close Communion, - - 257 

Doctrine of the Novatians, ----- 314 

Donatists, ------- 328 

Dragon cast out, ------ 342 

Destruction of Waldenses, - 373 ' 

Decree for the baptism of the infants of the Waldenses, - 387 

Dreadful sufferings of the Waldenses in prisons, - 388 



General Index. 463 



PAGE. 

Decree of Charles V. against the Baptists, - 415 

Doctrine for which the English Baptists were burned, - 425 

Doctrine of English Baptists, - 427 

Early Welsh Baptists missionary, - 32 

Early Baptists in favor of ministerial education, - 37 

Events connected with the Eoger Williams affair summed up, 60 

English Baptists not from John Smith, - - 78 

English Baptists descended from the German Baptists, 84 

Equality in church business taught in the Scriptures, - 209 

Equality claimed among Baptists, ... 223 

Equality among the primitive churches, - 290 

Expulsion of the Novatians, .... 339 

Equality among the Waldenses, - 361 

Episcopal Church, - - ... . 404 

Evils of immersion, - - - - - 429 

Faith before baptism, - 193 
Folly of communion with Reformers, ... 259 

Flight of the Woman, ----- 336 

Final Dispersion of the Waldenses, - - - - 385 

German Baptists not from the Munster riot, - - 91 

German Baptists from the ancient Waldenses, - 99 

Graves, J. R., on church independency, - - - 224 
Growth of infant baptism, ----- 310 

Howell on Succession, ----- is 

Holmes whipped for preaching, - 273 

Horrible cruelty of the Reformers, - 414 

Injustice of charging Baptists with the Munster affair, - 94 
Infant baptism among the Waldenses, from the Spiritual 

Almanac, - - - - - 123 

Infant baptism not in the old Waldensean confessions, - 126 

Infant communion, ----- 297 

Infant baptism a fearful sin, - - - 311 

Infant baptism the invention of the Devil, - - 411 

Infants saved by baptism — Wesley, - • ; - - 438 



464 General Index. 



PAGE. 

Jeter, J. B., on the " Old School" Baptists, - - 25 

" James and Mary," - - - - 78 

Jesus the founder of his church, ... 172 

Jeter on the use of creeds, ----- 187 

Jesus baptized before communion, ... 243 

Jones on the dispersion of the Waldenses, - - 886 

Kingdom visible, ... 9 

Kingdom of God not meat and drink, - *■ 12 

« 

Liberty of conscience, - - . 223 

Lord's Supper in the Kingdom, - 244 

Lutheran Church, ------ 399 

Luther calls the Baptists " devils," - 402 

Lutheranism from Rome, ----- 403 

Luther persecutes, .... - 420 

MunsterRiot, .---.- 92 

Miller and Eice against Jones, - - - - 115 

Modern Waldenses enrolled with the State clergy, - 127 

Milton on the rise of the Waldenses, - - - 141 
Ministers to rule, - - - - - -211 

Ministers are servants, - - - - 212 

Mixed communion sanctions error, - 246 
Modern Baptists persecuted, - 271 
Meeting of the remnant of the Waldenses after their dis- 
persion, ------ 389 

Millions destroyed by the Catholics, - 398 

Modern Baptists, - - - - - - 409 

Martyrdom of Wagner, ----- 412 

Martyrdom of Hubmeyer, ----- 413 

Martyrdom of Baptists by the Reformers, - - 414 

Martyrdom of Satler and his wife, - - - - 415 

Mennonites, ------ 431 

Mosheim on the Mennonites, - - 432 

Modern Mennonites have departed from the faith, - 434 

Methodism, ------- 435 



General Index. 465 



PAGE. 

No succession from Eoger Williams, - 58 

Noble lesson against Infant baptism, ... 135 

Novatians, ------ I54 

Novatian's character by Dupin, - 156 

Novatian churches not from Novatian, - 158 

Novatians from the primitive churches, - 161 

Novatians the Apostolic Church of Christ, - - 164 

Novatians were Baptists, ----- i($5 

Noble defense by Patrick Henry of Baptist preachers, - 280 

Novatian period, ------ 313 

Novatians opposed baptismal salvation, - - 317 

Novatians immersed their converts, ... 313 

Novatians were strict in communion, - 325 

Novatians were prersecuted, - 326 

Novatians retire to the valleys, - 341 

Oldest Baptist Church in America at Newport, - 51 

Organization of the present Providence First Church, - 52 

Origin of the Baptists hid in the depths of antiquity, - 101 

One pastor should serve but one church at a time, - 303 

Origin of baptismal salvation, - 306 

Oates, a Baptist preacher, tried for his life for immersing, 428 

Perrin's report of Waldenses baptizing children, - - 116 

Pope and Maguire debate, -'-"■-_ 118 

Position of slaves in the church, - - - 213 

Positions of minors in the church, - 215 

Persecutions spoken of in the Bible, ... 267 

Persecutions in Massachusetts, - 272 

Preaching in prison, ----- 277 

Primitive churches, ----- 285 

Primitive churches practiced immersion, - 287 

Primitive churches opposed baptismal salvation, - 288 

Primitive churches equal in point of privilege, - - 292 

Primitive churches strict in their communion, - 295 

Primitive churches persecuted, - 298 

Preservation of the church in the wilderness, - - 346 

Popish blasphemy, ------ 396 



466 



General Index. 



PAGE. 

Presbyterianism, - - - - 407 

Protestant decree against Baptists, - 418 

Queen Elizabeth persecuted the Baptists, - - 424 

Royal Encyclopedia on the Munster affair, - 97 

Rice, Dr. N. L., against Jones, - - - - 115 

Repentance prior to faith with the heart, - 192 

Restricted communion, ----- 233 

Restricted communion among Baptists, - 262 

Rise of the hierarchy, ----- 305 

Rise of infant baptism, ----- 307 

Rome not to be reformed, - 331 
Rome described by Waller, ----- 332 

Romanism, ------ 394 

Romish blasphemy, - 395 

Romish baptismal salvation, - 397 

Rise of Lutheranism, - - - - - 400 

Rise of the Episcopal Church, - - - - 404 

Rogers for burning Baptists, - 423 

Secession of the Anti-Mission Baptists, - - - 24 

Smith, John, repudiated his baptism, - - 81 

Trott, Elder S., on the separation from the missionaries, - 24 

The Savior immersed, ----- 200 

The Baptists sided with Washington in the Revolution, - 226 
The charge of Close Communion not applicable to Baptists, 255 

The true Church persecuted, - 266 

Terrible persecution of early Christians, - • - - 299 

The great apostacy, - 329 

The Waldensean period closed in the year 1686, - - 391 

Traditions of Rome, ----- 393 

Terrible decree of Charles V., - - - 415 

Union of the corrupt Church and State, - - - 334 

Validity of Novatian's baptism, - 320 

Valleys of Piedmont described, - - - - 347 

Vengeance on guilty nations, - 392 



General Index. 467 

PAGE. 

Welsh Tract Church emigrated from Wales, 65 

Waldenses — the name, - # - 107 

Waldenses driven out of the valleys in 1686, - - 128 

Waldensean Confessions contain no infant baptism. - - 135 
Waldenses regarded infant baptism as a mark of Antichrist, 137 

Waldenses, their origin, ----- 138 

Waldenses from the Xovatians, - 142 

Waldenses never needed any reformation, - - 146 

Waldenses claim an uninterrupted succession, - - 149 

Washing away of sins in baptism, - 202 

Women to keep silence in the churches, - 216 

Women allowed to pray and prophesy, - - 217 

Waller on the folly of Open Communion, - - - 248 

Waldensean period, - - - - - - 336 

Waldenses claim Jesus as their founder and head, - - 349 

Waldenses claim the Bible as their rule, - - 351 

Waldenses buried in baptism, - - - - 355 

Waldenses opposed baptismal salvation, - 356 

Waldenses strict in communion, - - - 364 

Waldenses persecuted, - - - - - 370 

Waldensean women and children perished in the snow, - 374 

Waldensean children represented as beasts, - - 376 

Waldenses committed to the flames in 1232 y - - 378 

Waldenses increased under persecutions, - - 379 

Wesley for baptismal salvation, - 437 

Zuingle debates with Baptists, - 410 

Zuinglians against the Baptists, - 411 



468 



LIST OF MINISTERS, SUBSCRIBERS. 



Elder A. J. Hall, Jackson, Tennessee. 

" C. N. Ray, Columbus, Kentucky. 

44 R. L. Thurman, Barclstown. Kentucky. 

44 N. G. Terry, Glasgow, Kentucky. 

44 Geo. Hunt, Lexington, Kentucky. 

44 T. W. Bibb, Cave City, Kentucky. 

44 S. F. Thompson, Louisville, Kentucky. 

" J. H. Brown, Louisville, Kentucky. 

44 J. C. Freeman, Lexington, Kentucky. 

" A. S. Worrell, Lexington, Kentucky 

" L. B. Fish, Lexington, Kentucky. 

44 Samuel A a lain, Newport, Rhode Island. 

44 1ST. J. Wheeler, Newport, Rhode Island. 

44 R. Holman, Eminence, Kentuck3 r . 

14 W. W. Jordan, Eminence, Kentucky. 

" D. N. Porter, Eminence, Kentucky. 

44 W. W. Foree, Eminence, Kentucky. 

44 S. D. Kendall, Texas. 

44 J. W. Cearley, Pilot Point, Texas. 

44 Thos. Lamari, Quincy, Tennessee. 

44 R. A. Coleman, Humboldt, Tennessee. 

44 M. H. Neal, Humboldt, Tennessee. 

44 Wm. Hill, Newbern, Tennessee. 

44 C. C. McDearman, Como., Tennessee. 

44 A. W. Richardson, Rowlett's Station, Kentucky. 

44 J. T. Freeman, Corinth, Mississippi. 

44 J. K. Nunnelley, Pine Grove, Ken tuck 3 T . 

44 David Halliburton, Rutherford Station, Tennesse 

44 P. M. Pearce, New Madrid, Missouri. 

14 T. M. Huckleberry, North Vernon, Indiana. 

44 < B. F. Farmer, Dyersburg, Tennessee. 

44 J. H. Allen, Bell's Depot, Tennessee. 

44 S. P. Forgy, Allensviile, Kentucky. 

44 A. F. Baker, Versailles, Kentucky. 

44 A. J. Fawcette, Humboldt, Tennessee. 

" W. T. Bennett, Humboldt, Tennessee. 

44 Stephen Ray, Owensboro', Kentucky. 

44 George E. Brewer, Rockford, Alabama. 

44 J. C. Graves, Wolf Island, Missouri. 

44 E. L. McLean, Murray, Kentucky. 

44 M. Whittle, Friendship, Tennessee. 

44 J. M. Holt, Milan, Tennessee. 

** S. P. Clark, Milan, Tennessee. 



List of Ministers , Subscribers. 469 



Elder James Robertson, Boonville, Mississippi. 

" R. T. Gardner, Burnsville, Mississippi. 

44 J. A. Wheelock, Iuka, Mississippi. 

u E. Z. Simmons, Kossuth, Mississippi. 

" H. L. Finley, Lafayette Springs, Mississippi. 

" W. H. Harris, Rienzi, Mississippi. 

" D. J. Franklin, Henderson Station, Tennessee. 

" J. G. Doyle, Humboldt, Tennessee. 

" W. S. Byers, Brownsville, Tennessee. 

44 W. T. Tyree, Red River Forge, Kentucky. 

" W. B. Arvin, Winchester, Kentucky. 

44 G. W. Allen, Gadsden, Tennessee. 

.. " J. P. Adams, Kansas, Kentucky. 

44 R. H. Mahan, Kansas, Kentucky. 

" 1. 39". Wiman, Kansas, Kentucky. 

" W. F. Lowe, Kansas, Kentucky. 

" M. Flowers, Rutherford Station, Tennessee. 

44 J. H. Spencer, Lacona, Kentucky. 

" Harvey Chapman, Kansas, Kentucky. 

44 T. H. Storts, Bowling* Green, Kentucky. 

" J. M. Peay, South Carrollton, Kentucky. 

44 W. P. Bennett, Point Pleasant, Kentucky. 

" J. S. Gatton, Elizabethtown, Kentucky. 

w David Shaver, Atlanta, Georgia. 

" W. H. Felix, Covington, Kentuckv. 

u T. H. Pease, Milburh, Kentucky. " 

44 T. W. Haynes, Covington, Kentucky. 

" H. E. Spilman, Daj^ton, Kentucky. 

u I. F. Stovall, Bethel Springs, Tennessee. 

" J. M. McGuire, Port Royal, Kentucky. 

" J. O. Anderson, Port Royal, Kentuckv. 

" L. S. Chilton, Port Royal, Kentucky. * 

44 J. C. Park, Poplar Spring, Tennessee. 

44 S. W. Coleman, Clinton, Mississippi. 

44 A. S. Dorris, Bolivar, Tennessee. 

44 J. R. Barbee, Cynthiana, Kentucky. 

" J. N. Barbee, Cynthiana, Kentucky. 

u Lafayette Johnson, Walton, Kentucky. 

44 L. M. Berry, Lacon, Illinois. 

" W. H. Williams, Warsaw, Kentuckv. 

" T. I. Wills, Winchester, Kentucky. " 

" Isaac McMurry, Marion, Kentucky. 

44 J. G. Hardy, Rowlett ? s Station, Kentuckv. 

44 W. E. Fulks, Uptonville, Kentucky. 

44 J. P. Brooks, Caverna, Kentucky/ 

44 A. C. Caperton, Evansville, Indiana. 

44 Joseph Shackleford, Tuscumbia, Alabama. 



470 



LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS' NAMES. 



Atkisson, J. L., Murray, Ky. 
Anderson, B., Cave City, " 
Arnett, Mrs. M. E., Caverna, Ky. 
Abbitt, J. W., Newbern, Tenn. 
Alexander, J. V., Boonville, Miss. 
Ashley, H., Yorkville, Tenn. 
Anders, — , Chestnut Bluffs, Tenn. 
Alexander, A. M., Chilesburg, Ky. 
Alberti, J. L. B., Lexington, " 
Applewhite, R. H., Newbern, Tenn. 
Adams, Miss T. C, Kansas, Ky. 
Atherton, J. M., Milburn, " 
Allen, Dr. C. B., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Arnold, J. L., Eminence, Ky. 
Allen, B. R., Lexington, " 
Adams, Mrs. N., Athens, " 
Allen, Miss Sallie, Athens, Ky. 
Atkins, M., Caverna, " 

Anderson, J. Q., Caverna, " 
Anderson, W. W., Hardyville, Ky. 
Burgess, Paul, Wolf Island, Mo. 
Bratcher, J. B., Wolf Island, Mo. 
Brateher, L., Wolf Island,, Mo. 
Brannin, Mrs. M. A., Newcastle, Ky. 
Brown, L. E., Eminence, " 

Brooks, L. R., Corinth, Miss. 
Barnett, J. H., Corinth, Miss. 
Bourland, S. R., Corinth, Miss. 
Buchanan, T. C, Dyersburg, Tenn. 
Biles, R. S., Trenton, Tenn. 
Bush, W. T., Cave City, Ky. 
Barnes, E., Cave City, " 
Barnett, J. H., Antioch, Miss. 
Bailie, J. D., Lexington, Ky. 
Brown, W. N., Bell's Depot, Tenn. 
Baker, J. W., Chestnut Bluffs, " 
Blayd, J. I., Bell's Depot, " 

Bird, J., Rowlett's Station, Ky. 
Bush, W. L., Winchester, " 
Blayds, J. S., Gadsden, Tenn. 
Baker, J. L., Yorkville, Tenn. 
Bruce, L. B., Columbus, Ky. 
Boland, Miss Ellen, Milburn, Ky. 
Bettis, M.V., Chestnut Bluffs, Tenn. 
Barrow, W. B., Gadsden, " 

Bond, E. D., Denmark, " 

Bond, Tho?., Denmark, " 



Brooks, J. A., Denmark, Tenn. 
Betts, J. H., Wellwood, " 
Bass, J. J., Trenton, " 

Boyd, B. F., Lanefield, " 
Browning, J. M., Cynthiana, Ky. 
Bone, J. F., Cynthiana, 
Boulware, L. F., Port Royal, " 
Boulware, S. 0., Port Royal, " 
Brewer, J. W., Port Royal, " 

Bryant, W. D., Lexington, " 

Berry, J. W., Lexington, 
Bean, S. C, Athens, " 

Bryant, W. E., Campbellsburg, " 
Burnett, R. H., Minden, La. 
Baker, J. H., Lexington, Ky. 
Burbank, D., Lexington, i( 
Burns, J. Z., Marion, " 

Bass, W. T., Rowlett's Station, Ky. 
Balloon, E., Rowlett's Station, " 
Burns, J. E., Hardyville, " 

Bohannon, J. M., Hardyville, " 
Bird, J. W., Hardyville, " 

Bird, J. T., Hardyville, " 

Brooks, W. J., Rowlett's Station, " 
Barrs, A. A., Hardyville, " 

Crouch, J. B., Colemansville, " 
Chandler, E. L., McMinnville, Tenn 
Cole, J. T., Corinth, Miss. 
Clay, Mrs. P. J., Newbern, Tenn. 
Cunningham, Mrs. Mary, Dyer Sta- 
tion, Tenn. 
Clark, Dr. R. T., Paris, Tenn. 
Covington, E. H., Murray, Ky. 
Cartmell, J. M., Humboldt, Tenn. 
Coats, W. S., Rowlett's Station, Ky. 
Craddock, G. H., Caverna, " 

Corum, A. D., Union City, Tenn. 
Cline, W. J., Friendship, Tenn* 
Cole, J. P., Newbern, Tenn. 
Crenshaw, J. H., Newbern, Tenn. 
Calahan, E. J., Corinth, Miss. 
Coin, F. M., Johnson's Grove, Tenn. 
Cooper, Mrs. A. U., Trenton, Tenn. 
Carr, D. T., Lexington, Ky. 
Conger, Mrs. Callie, Jackson, Tenn. 
Conger, Miss M., Jackson, Tenn. 
Crocker, C. J., Trezevant, Tenn. 



List of Subscribers: jf antes. 



471 



Corley, N., Yorkville, Tenn. 
Corley, T. C, Yorkville, Tenn. 
Crump, GAY., Rowlett's Station, Ky 
Chaney, E., Three Springs, u 

Chenault, Tif., Richmond, " 

Cearley, J.R., Chestnut Bluffs, Tenn 
Castelough, J. D., Chestnut Bluffs, 

Tenn. 
Cardwell, F. P., Denmark, Tenn. 
Carpenter, C. B., Port Royal, Ky. 
Cragmiles, H., Robinson Station, Ky 
Christian, W. E., Athens, 
Campbell, D. T., Campbellsburg, " 
Covington, Dr. T. H., Wadesboro', 

Ky. 
Cameron, W. C, Mount Erie, 111. 
Curl, J. R., Three Springs, Ky. 
Chaney, F. M., Three Springs/ Ky. 
Cook, R., Hardyville, * <•' 

Climer, G. E., Conner, " 

Duff, W. W., Wolf Island, Mo. 
Dark, John, Wolf Island, Mo. 
Dickey, B. T., Glasgow, Ky. 
Dickey, Cyrus, Cave City, " 
Dickey, J. H., Hallville, Texas. 
Downer, S. A., Cave City, Ky. 
Duke, W. H., Newbern, Tenn. 
Dodd, Mrs. P. C, Murray, Ky. 
Deberry, R. E., Humboldt, Tenn. 
Dixon, C. M., Woodsonville, Ky. 
Derry berry, B. W., Che walla, Miss. 
Davis, C. L., Chestnut Bluffs, Tenn. 
Ditto, H. D., Johnson's Grove, " 
Daniel, L. W., Bell's Depot, " 
Darnaby, J. H., Lexington, Ky. 
Dalton, T. S., Kansas, " 

Dickerson, Capt., Denmark, Tenn. 
Dalton, J. M., Paris, Tenn. 
Dunaway, J., Port Royal, Ky. 
Davis, Miss Josephine, Athens, Ky. 
Davidson, W. L., Athens, " 

Devers, Miss M. E., Cynthiana, " 
Dawson, N., Rowlett's Station, " 
Duke, J. T., Caverna, " 

Davis, W. R. D., Caverna, " 

Enochs, J. W., Newbern, Tenn. 
Ellison, Lewis, Murray, Ky. 
Ellison, P. M., Murray, " 
Eaves, W. D.. Henrv Station, Tenn. 
Ewards, Dr. W. T., Caverna, Ky. 
Edwards, T. J., Newbern, Tenn. 
Eaton, W. H., Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Ellis, Mrs. M. E., Columbus, Ky. 



Ellis, Mrs. S. E., Columbus, Ky. 
Estill, C. F., Lexington. " 

Earl, E. J. L., Clinton/ " 

Eason, J. S., Friendship, Tenn. 
Ellis, Mrs. Agnes, Newcastle, Ky. 
Eddleman, Mrs. Annis, Athens, u 
Ellis, Mrs. Z., Lexington, " 

Eastin, W. 0., Lexington, " 

Ekler, S. 0., Cynthiana, " 

Earls, Thos., Rowlett's Station, " 
Earls, J. H., Rowlett's Station, " 
Elamn, R. E., Caverna, " 

Edwards, J. T., Rock Springs, " 
Fry, A., Wolf Island, Mo. 
Fuller, H., Newbern, Tenn. 
Foster, T. H., Como, " 
Fleece, J. W., Caverna, Ky. 
Fields, Miss S. V., Eaton, Tenn. 
Fields, Mrs. M. M., Eaton, " 
Fields, J. T., Dyersburg, " 
Flowers, A., Rutherford Station, Ky. 
Fly, E. S., Humboldt, Tenn. 
Farmer, N. B., Johnson's Grove, 

Tenn. 
Flowers, Felix, Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Finch, Jarrett, Rossville, Ky. 
Fletcher, A. J., Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Frior, B. F., Hardyville, Ky. 
Franklin, G. H., Three Springs, Ky. 
Fulgham, H., Kansas, " 

Farthing, C, Kansas, (t 

Farthing, J. Q., Kansas, M 

Felts, J. J., Wadesboro', " 

Gardner, Mrs. M. E., Wolf Island, 

Mo. 
Gupton, S. M., Newcastle, Ky. 
Gardner, J. S., Murray, u 

Guthrie, W. P., Murray, " 

Glenn, AY., Rowlett's Station, " 
Gordon, J. E., Winchester, " 
Gordon, F. M., Winchester, " 
Gupton, A., Kansas, il 

Garnett, William, Cynthiana, " 
Griffey, C, Kenton, Tenn. 
Grimes, A. R., Athens, Ky. 
Gorman, M. J., Rowlett's Station, 

Ky. 
Gray, M. H., Three Springs, Ky. 
Gardner, B. C, Caverna, " 

Gess, Miss S. J., Lexington, " 
Garnett, G. W., Bolivar, Tenn. 
Husk, Miss B., Wolf Island, Mo. 



472 



List of Subscribers' JVames. 



Holmes, J. II., Wolf Island, Mo. 
Henderson, J. F., Wolf Island, " 
Hatcher, T. H., Cave City, Ky. 
Hill, G. W., Newbern, Tenn. 
Hall, A., Henry Station, Tenn. 
Harding, H. W., Murray, Ky. 
Hutchins, J. M., Murray, " 
Hurt, W. J., Como, Tenn. 
Hatcher, Josiah, Cave City, Ky. 
Holland, A. J., Murray, " 
Hatcher, Branch, Cave City, " 
Hardin, John L., Friendship, Tenn. 
Hardy, T. J., Rowlett's Station, Ky. 
Hornberger, H., Newbern, Tenn. 
Heartsfield, J. 0., Rutherford Sta- 
tion, Tenn. 
Hillsman, B. T., Trezevant, Tenn. 
Hillsman, J. H., Trezevant, " 
Hurt, R. M., Trezevant, " 

Hall, E. S., Rutherford, " 

Hardy, Silas, Rowlett's Station, Ky. 
Harris, J. T.,. Rienzi, Miss. 
Hancock, A., Dyer's Station, Tenn. 
Hoover, J. M., Hamburg, " 

Halliburton, M., Rutherford Sta- 
tion, Tenn. 
Harrell, J. F., Johnson's Grove, 

Tenn. 
Hunt, J. H., Winchester, Ky. 
Hix, J. L., Humboldt, Tenn. 
Hudson, J. S., Charleston, Mo. 
Harper, B. C, Milburn, Ky. 
Hall, J. T., Kansas, " 

Hughes, D. E., Kansas, " 
Hay, H. C, Robertsonville, Tenn. 
Hickman, D. D., Friendship, " 
Hawkins, E. E., Friendship, " 
Hudson, Dr. J. A., Brownsville, 

Tenn. 
Halley, S. D., Denmark, Tenn. 
Hartstone, M. Y., Denmark, Tenn. 
Hunt, J. H., Trenton, " 

Hunt, W. M., Trenton, " 

Harrell, E., Bell's Depot, " 

Howland, B. B., Newport, R. I. 
Hazard, G. M., Newport, " 
Hughes, B. F., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Hurt, J. A., Kenton, Tenn. 
Henry, T. A., Camden, Tenn. 
Hampton, Mrs. C, Winchester, Ky. 
Hughes, D., Kansas, " 

Hardy, P. C, Rowlett's Station, " 
Harper, J. W., Caverna, " 

Harbour, J. B., Caverna, " 



Hobson, E., Rock Springs, Ky. 
Harbour, R. J., Caverna, " 

Hands, N. J., Hardyville, " 

Harper, I. L., Caverna, " 

Holland, J. S., Trenton, Tenn. 
Hogan, W. J., Athens, Ky. 
Harris, L., Athens, " 

Ham, D. F., Bolivar, Tenn. 
Hume, N. L., Berry's Station, Ky. 
Hornsey, T. A., Lexington, " 
Ingram, W. W., Caverna, " 

Johnston, C. R., Wolf Island, Mo. 
Johnson, Mrs. Amelia, Murray, Ky 
Jones, B. F., Union City, Tenn. 
Jordan, Wm., Dyersburg, Tenn. 
Jones, J. H., Kansas, Ky. 
Jones, J. R., Kansas, " 
Jones, W. M., Rutherford, Tenn. 
Jefferson, R. J., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Jones, J. J., Wellwood, Tenn. 
Jones, Dr. J. H., Denmark, Tenn. 
James, E. H., Milan, Tenn. 
James, Dr. F. M., Jackson, Tenn. 
Jackson, R. C, Union City, Tenn. 
Jones, J. D., Union City, Tenn. 
Jackson, J. P., Caverna, Ky. 
Kelley, George, Wolf Island, Mo. 
Kahn, M., Newcastle, Ky. 
Kendall, Mrs. J., Corinth, Miss. 
King, T. W., Cave City, Ky. 
Keirsey, L. D., Quincy, Tenn. 
Kimbrough, J., Cynthiana, Ky. 
Kidd, P. C, Lexington, " 
King, Paul, Jr., Cynthiana, " 
Key, J. W., Rowlett's Station, Ky. 
Keath, R., Three Springs, " 

Laird, T. G., Bacon Creek, " 

Lindsey, J. S., Eminence, " 

Landis, Dr. J. L., Conyersville 

Tenn. 
Lovelace, H. H., Como, Tenn. 
Lane, Mrs. M. A., Eaton, Tenn. 
Leslie, P. H., Glasgow, Ky. 
Lively, Lycurgus, Caverna, Ky. 
Lively, J. S., Caverna, " 

Lively, B. M., Roberts' Station, Ky 
Long, A. A., Newbern, Tenn. 
Lowery, Dr. J. G., Corinth, Miss. 
Lowe, N., Lexington, Ky. 
Lovelace, Dr. L. M., Milburn, Ky. 
Lowe, J. R., Kansas, " 

Lowe, T. J., Kansas, 
Lake, Joseph, Cynthiana, 
Lewis, Dr. G. W.. S toner, " 



List of Subscribers' JVames. 



473 



Land, C. G., Cynthiana, Ky. 
Long, J. T., Caverna, " 
Light, J. W., Three Springs, Ky. 
Lyle, M. S., Hardyville, 
Larue, R. P., Marion, w 

Mires, S. H., Hardyville, « 
Masters, J. H., Caverna, " 

Mason, M., Wolf Island, Mo. 
McFerran, S. H., Caverna, Ky. 
Moore, Mrs. T., Louisville, " 
McDonald, J., Corinth, Miss. 
McElwrath, Mrs. R., Murray, Ky. 
Morehead, Miss S., Cave City, 
Miller, A., Caverna, 
Middleton, G. G., Cave City, 
McCann, W. E., Lexington, 
Marrs, J. F., Hickman, 
Moudy, G. W., Kansas, 
Morrison, C. W., Cave City, 
Meshew, F. M., Columbus, 
Mott, T. C, Milburn, 
Maxey, W. W., Fancy Farm, 
Megary, Thos., Milburn, 
Morgan, G. L., Kansas, 
Maddin, G., Kansas, 
Melton, Mrs. H. A., Paris, Tenn. 
McCain, W. H., Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Mahan, F. E., Cageville, Tenn. 
Michum, W. E., Trezevant, Tenn. 
McBribe, W. H., Brownsville, Tenn 
McDowdell, J.H., Humboldt, Tenn. 
McHaney, W. W., Humboldt, Tenn. 
Miller, W. H., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Mound, H. N-, Friendship, Tenn. 
Maiden, W. F., Camden, Tenn. 
Meadows, I., Port Royal, Ky. 
Malin, R., Port Royal, " 

Martin, B. F., Athens, " 

McDonald, Mrs. S„, Athens, " 
McDonald, F. B., Winchester, Ky. 
Moodie, F.B., Louisville, " 

Moody, W. H., Newcastle, " 

Marshall, J. H., Bolivar, Tenn. 
Martin, Mrs. J. E., Cynthiana, Ky. 
Martin, R. S., McAfee, " 

Mitchell, S. 0., Lexington, " 

More, Mrs. M. F., Cynthiana, " 
McDearman, J. C, Trenton, Tenn. 
McDonald, Mrs. M. H., Georgetown, 

Ky. 
Mandeville, B. M., Louisville, Ky. 
Murfey, James, Marion, " 

McCullough, Elvina, Caverna, " 



Marshall, J. R., Hardvville, Ky. 

Marshall, W. T., Hardyville, " 

Mitchell, J. M., Hardyville, " 

Mustane, J. M., Caverna, " 

Montgomery, J., Caverna, " 

Nicholson, W. T., Eaton, Tenn. 

Norris, Miss If. E., Caverna, Ky. 

Neal, T. S., Bell's Depot, Tenn. 

Xorvil, A. G., Cageville, Tenn. 

Newbill, — ., Trezevant, Tenn. 

Nunnelley, P. P.. Winchester, Ky. 

Xevil, R.*B., Milburn, " 

Nelson, W. M., Humboldt, Tenn. 

Nicholson, D. S., Denmark, Tenn. 

Nichols, W. H., Kenton, Tenn. 

Nevill, A. S., Port Royal, Ky. 

Nold, Mrs. E. M., Paducah, Ky. 

Norton, Ex., New York City. 

O'Daniel, Dr. F. M., Rutherford, 
Tenn. 

Owens, R. L., Newcastle, Ky. 

Olivar, J. W., Winchester, Ky. 

O'Neal, J. W., Milburn, Ky. 

Outlaw, A. J., Jones' Station, Tenn. 

O'Daniel, D. F., Jackson, Tenn. 

Oliphant, Dr. U. H., Paulding, Mis- 
sissippi. 

Owen, J. S., Rowlett's Station, Ky. 

Owen, H. M., Caverna, " 

Popland, Bennett, AYolf Island, Mo. 
Parker, Mrs. A. G., Wolf Island, 

Mo. 
Powell, N. G., Cave City, Ky. 
Pearce, Miss Kitty, Newcastle, Ky. 
Pahl, Dr. W. F., Anderson, Texas. 
Pettit, Mrs. Adaline, Wadesboro'^ 

Ky. 
Peak, B. A., Murray, Ky. 
Parrish, H. C, Caverna, Ky. 
Parrish, G. T., Cave City, Ky. 
Pullian, B. J., Union City, Tenn. 
Petty, A. W., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Pierce, J. W., Maxville, Tenn. 
Powers, E., Dyersburg, Tenn. 
Powell, Mrs. H. M., Conyersville, 

Tenn. 
Perry, I. N., Johnson's Grove, Tenn 
Patterson, Mrs. E. J., Union City, 

Tenn. 
Powell, J. S., Trezevant, Tenn. 
Potts, E., Corinth, Miss. 
Piatt, Mrs. M. L., Louisville, Ky. 
Pollock, J. P., Columbus, " 

Page, J. D., Kansas, M 



474 



List of Subscribers' JV antes. 



Pendleton, E. B., Chestnut Bluffs, 

Tenn. 
Parker, R. H., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Phillips, J. W., Hollow Rock, Tenn 
Pollard, Mrs. L. J., Port Royal, Ky 
Pollard, Mrs. E. F., Port Royal, " 
Powell, E. K., Port Royal, " 

Penniston, F., Port Royal, " 

Powell, J. H., Athens, " 

Parker, Dr. S. L., Athens, " 

Parker, Mrs. V., Lexington, " 
Pendleton, L. A., Caverna, " 

Pruette, M. S., Rock Spring, " 
Purnell, Wm., Lexington, " 

Quisenberry, A., Winchester, " 
Quisenberry,C. B., Lexington, " 
Ralston, Miss Z., Cave City, " 
Richardson, Mrs. M. J., Paducah, 

Ky. 
Richardson, Mrs. M. L., Rowlett's 

Station, Ky. 
Richardson, W. R., Kossuth, Miss. 
Ray, C. A., Rienzi, Miss. 
Ray, Prof. F. M., Clinton, Ky. 
Ray, Dennis, Columbus, " 
Ray, Dr. J. D., Weatherford, Texas 
Ray, E. R., Columbus, Ky. 
Ray, J. S., Wesley, 
Robinson, E. G., Boonville, Miss. 
Rogers, J., Baldwin, " 

Robertson, G., Johnson's Grove, 

Tenn. 
Read, Garnett, Winchester, Ky. 
Rupard, S. T., Winchester, " 
Rupard, C. A., Winchester, " 
Robertson, J., Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Ray, Dr. D. M., Kentucky Town, 

Texas. 
Robertson, D. G., Kansas, Ky. 
Ray, A., Purdy, Tenn. 
Renfroe, J. M., Hardyville, Ky. 
Reynolds, A. J., Connor, " 
Ringo, B. R., Hardyville, " 
Roberts, J. S., Newcastle, Ky. 
Rosamon, J. W., Gadsden, Tenn. 
Rose James, Newbern, Tenn. 
Roberts, H. F., Columbus, Ky. 
Rudd, Thos., Milburn, " 

Rudd, W. Z., Milburn, " 

Robinson, Ed., Boaz Mills, " 
Richards, J. N., Bell's Depot, Tenn 
Rhoods, W. G., Johnson's Grove, 
Tenn. 



Reddick, T. J., Johnson's Grove, 
Tenn. 

Rice, J. B., Denmark, Tenn. 

Robinson, W. B., Port Royal, Ky. 

Rabourn, Z., Port Royal, " 

Rooks, Mrs. C.C., Brownsville, Tenn 

Simmons, J. H., Corinth, Miss. 

Simmons, T. W., Corinth, Miss. 

Stublefield, Mrs. V. F., Murray, Ky. 

Simmons, G. W., Como, Tenn. 

Smith, W. T. M., Cave City, Ky. 

Smith, E. B., Roberts' Station, Ky. 

Shackleford, M. L., Caverna, " 

Scoby, Dr. W. H., Hamilton, Ohio. 

Sanderson, R. M., Cave City, Ky. 

Sutherlin, Mrs. E., Union City, Tenn 

Stafford, E. H., Milan, Tenn. 

Speight, — , Newbern, Tenn. 

Simmons, L. W., Rutherford Sta- 
tion, Tenn. 

Savage, H. W., Rutherford Station, 
Tenn. 

Smith, Dr. J. D., Henderson Sta- 
tion, Tenn. 
Simmons, J. P., Bell's Depot, Tenn. 
Slade, Dr. J. T., Lexington, Ky. 
Strode, W. D., Winchester, " 
Scott, J. A., Lexington, " 

Short, A. A., Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Strode, Mrs. M. C, Edgefield, Tenn 
Stone, A., Columbus, Ky. 
Simpson, F. M., Milburn, Ky. 
Sims, T. M., Milburn, " 

Sims, J. A., Milburn, " 

Sanders, J. M., Gadsden, Tenn. 
Sherrod, W. R., Wellwood, Tenn. 
Seats, Mrs. A., Humboldt, Tenn. 
Stevens, E., Friendship, Tenn. 

Sympson, W. C, , Ky. 

Scott, J. R., Campbellsburg, Ky. 
Sharp, D., Athens, Ky. 
Staten, A. I., Campbellsburg, Ky. 
Scott, C, Campbellsburg, " 

Straton,W. H., Campbellsburg, " 
Shelton, T. E., Caverna, « 

Strader, J. G., Hardyville, « 

Stovall, W. H., Hardyville, " 
Strode, M. G., Scottville, " 

Shackleford, M. L., Caverna, " 
Smith, J. A., Burnsville, u 

Thomason, Joseph, Newcastle, " 
Turner, G. W., Corinth, Miss. 
Tharp, J. C, Quincy, Tenn. 



List of Subscribers' Names. 



475 



Talley, Miss T., Humboldt.. Tenn. 
Tipton, J. C, Dyersburg, Tenn. 
Taylor, J. T., Kansas, Ky. 
Tolley, S., Milburn, " 

Taylor, Mrs. J., Denmark, Tenn. 
Thomas, G. Q., Friendship, Tenn. 
Thomas^ G. R., Wellwood, Tenn. 
Turner, W. T., Cynthiana, Ky. 
Tingle, James, jr., Port Royal, Ky. 
Tingle, Elisha, Port Royal, " 

Tingle, Gabrael, Port Royal, " 
Tingle, William, Port Royal, " 
Tiemann, William, Dayton, " 

Tandy, J. W., Eminence, " 

Towbridge, Mrs. B. E., Cynthiana, 

Ky. 
Taylor, G. W., Caverna, Ky. 
Violett, William, Port Royal, Ky. 
Yann, J., Newbern, Tenn. 

Vann, Mrs. M. S., Newbern, Tenn. 

Vincent, I. A., Glasgow, Ky. 

Vanderon, A., Cynthiana, Ky. 

Vanderon, J., Cynthiana, i( 

Woodward, Jas., Wolf Island, Mo. 

Wright, J. M., Wolf Island, Mo. 

Williams, Dr. E. R., Cave City, Ky. 

Williss, L. C, Cayerna, 

Williams, Prof. A. F., Cayerna, 

Webb, Mrs. L. G., Newcastle, 

Wilson, W. S., Eminence, 

Wilson, J. T., Eminence, 

White, J. E., Yorkyille, Tenn. 

Wilcox, T. H., Murray, Ky. 

Wilson, W. J., Rowlett's Station, 
Ky. 

Wilks, S. J., Three Springs, Ky. 

Warder, J. E., Cave City, Ky. 

Webb, R. T., Cageyille, Tenn. 

Wilson, J. P., Mumfordsville, Ky. 

Westbrook, Dr. J. R., Newbern, 
Tenn. 



Wilhelm, J. P., Newbern, Tenn. 
Woodruff, C. F., Xewbern, Tenn. 
Winburn, H. G., Bell's Depot, Tenn. 
Winburn, H. C, Johnson's Grove, 

Tenn. 
Whitson, Mrs. E. G., Dyersburg, 

Tenn. 
Whitaker, Mrs. A. E., Johnson's 

Grove, Tenn. 
Woodward, E. T., Winchester, Ky. 
Watts, F., Winchester, " 

White, T. W., Hickman, " 

Webb, J. H., Trezevant, Tenn. 
AYingo, Dr. J. J., Trezevant, Tenn. 
White, Wm., Columbus, Ky. 
Wright, J. C, Rutherford Station, 

Tenn. 
Winfrey, I. N., Columbus, Ky. 
Watson, H. T., Milburn, " 
Whitlow, J. W., Kansas, " 
Welch, M., Bell's Depot, Tenn. 
Williams, A., Denmark, Tenn. 
Williams, R. L., Eaton, Tenn. 
Winn, A. J., Paris, Tenn. 
Walker, Miss Katie, Dayton, Ky. 
Wigglesworth, R., Cynthiana, " 
Wigglesworth, T., Cynthiana, " 
Williams, G. D., Brownsville, Tenn. 
Woodall, A., Marion, Ky. 
Wilson, W., Mumfordsville, Ky. 
Womalduff, P. P., Marion, 
Williams, M. V., Caverna, 
Wilson, R. S., Caverna, 
Wallace, M. B., Hardyville, 
Watkins, B. T., Connor, 
West, Mrs. M. F., Henderson Sta- 
tion, Tenn. 
Wyatt, — , Prestonville, Ky. 
Yates, W. H., Friendship, Tenn. 
Yager, Dr. F. J., Campbellsburg, 
Ky. 



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THE TEXT-BOOK ON CAMPBELLISM 

oO© 

$81 AS reached the Third Edition. Errors of the press have been removed 
^^ from the last edition of this work. Among the multitude of com- 
mendations of the Key to Campbellism, on its first appearance, we have 
the following : 

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

" We hail the appearance of this book. It is the very thing needed by 
our ministers who have not time to read all of Campbell's writings — the 
very thing for our members, for it places a key to the mysteries of this se- 
ductive system in their hands ; and with this book and the New Testament 
they can withstand this error. The times demand that it should have a 
wide circulation. It should be in every Baptist family. " — The Baptist, 
(J. R. Graves, Editor.) 

" The work itself we consider the best book on the subject for popular 
reading. It gives a clear view of what Campbellism is ; shows its mani- 
fold inconsistencies, and refutes its errors. Without parade of learning, 
it presents common-sense views, which must carry conviction to all sin- 
cere and candid inquirers. " — A". M. Crawford, (President of Georgetown 
College, Kentucky.) 

"After reading the work, I am thoroughly convinced this very text- 
book is needed in every section where Campbellism prevails. I have never 
met with any work which fills its place. Here we have an index to all 
Mr. Campbell taught, with chapter and page for everything that is ever 
afiirmed. His fallacies are clearly shown, in short and pithy chapters. I 
have seen the time when I would have given double the price of the book 
for the chapter on Mr. Campbell's twenty contradictions. Suffice it to say 
the book is a success, and should meet with an extensive sale, especially 
in Kentucky, where Mr. Lard succeeds so well in preaching original Camp- 
bellism. " — A. B. Cabaniss, (President Brownsville Female College, Tenn.) 

" There was a place for this work, and the work fills the place. The 
distinguishing peculiarities of the Reformation are brought out by a great 
variety of citations from the writings of Mr. Campbell and his 'disciples/ 
and confuted with 'short, sharp and decisive' arguments, combining the 
authority of Scripture and the demonstration of logic; (though not with- 
out occasional and even serious errors of the pen or the press.)" — Index 
and Baptist, Georgia. 

" If it is possible to present the system produced by the current refor- 
mation, as it is taught by the leading ' disciple's/ this book has faithfully 
presented it. Many who stvle themselves ' Christians,' may not acknowl- 

477 



478 Text=(Book on Campbellism. 



edge the picture which our author draws ; many would shrink from con- 
fessing the errors which he brings to the light. But the book is neverthe- 
less an exposure of the system. If thousands are connected with this 
error by accident, or prejudice, or education, whose experience and prac- 
tice or a denial of it, this phenomenon constitutes no good reason why it 
should not be exposed. Manfully meeting error for the love we bear to 
the truth, and kindly treating the erring, is the only sure way to stop the 
progress of the former, and win the latter back to the primitive faith." — 
Kentucky Baptist. 

" The author's aim seems to be, to show from these writings what Mr. 
Campbell and his followers really teach, but he does more than this — he 
enters the list of the disputants to show the errors and sophistry of Mr 
Campbell's teachings, and their wide and vital divergence from the teach- 
ings of the New Testament and of Baptists. The work shows thought and 
studious research — its style is sufficiently lucid. It does not take the 
place of Elder A. P. Williams' master-piece on the leading features of 
Campbellism — his review of Moses E. Lard — but it has a place, and, seem- 
ingly a very appropriate place, of its own. We have not fallen upon one 
bitter or malicious sentence in it, and we hope, for the honor of truth, there 
are none. When the venom of hate distills its poison upon a defense of truth, 
the truth suffers from its virulence. Any one wishing to know what Camp- 
bellism, or the current reformation, generally so-styled, is, can distinctly 
ascertain it by a careful perusal of this book. „ And if the refutation of it 
he there finds is not satisfactory, he will find one that is so in A. P. Wil- 
liams' review of Lard." — Texas Baptist. 

" This is evidently the work of one who has made himself entirely familiar 
with Campbellism; who has read its inmost heart; of one also, who loves 
that faith which was of old delivered to the saints, and is ready to contend 
for it earnestly. We commend the book to such as may desire a succinct 
view of the history of Campbellism, with a statement and refutation of its 
principal tenets. The style is direct, pungent, and the reasoning conclu- 
sive, because, while logical, also scriptural." — The Standard, Chicago, III. 

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